Reconsidering Vertical Integration: An Examination of National Political Parties and Their Counterparts in Ontario

Abstract

AbstractThis paper reconsiders whether federal and provincial parties are as independent and separate as the literature would suggest. Examining five different types of party personnel (party members, activists, riding presidents, candidates and legislators) this paper explores how federal parties and their counterparts in Ontario have responded to multi-level governance. Rather than embracing “two political worlds,” party personnel have responded to the federal nature of Canadian politics by engaging with parties at multiple levels. Additionally, the paper examines two competing explanations of party integration and seeks to uncover whether differences organizational design or ideological consistency best explain divergent levels of party integration. The experience of the Conservatives demonstrates that vertical integration is not a result of a party's organizational design alone and that a coherent ideology can help to offset a truncated organizational structure.