The Party Organizations

Abstract

This chapter offers a general description of party organizational development in Sweden. We assess to what extent Swedish party organizations have followed the (alleged) transformations from mass parties to “electoral-professional” and/or “cartel” parties. Additionally, we inquire if such transformations may have affected the quality of intra-party democracy. It is demonstrated that mass parties, in principle, have been eradicated. Parties have become increasingly professionalized and less connected with their members. Also, tendencies towards a cartelization of the Swedish party system can be observed, particularly when the generous system of party subsidies is taken into account. However, no conclusive evidence supports the assertion that Swedish party organizations have become less internally democratic.