Joining the party: Incentives and motivations of members and registered sympathizers in contemporary multi-speed membership parties



Gomez, Raul, Ramiro, Luis, Morales, Laura and Aja, Jaime
(2021) Joining the party: Incentives and motivations of members and registered sympathizers in contemporary multi-speed membership parties. PARTY POLITICS, 27 (4). pp. 779-790.

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Abstract

<jats:p> Many parties have updated their recruitment strategies and offer softer routes for joining their ranks. In some parties, registered sympathizers are given virtually the same rights as traditional members with substantially lower costs. This begs the question, why would somebody take the further step of joining such parties as full members rather than sympathizers? This article analyzes this question by using membership surveys from three left-wing Spanish parties. As such, it explores the usefulness of the general incentives model (GIM) for explaining the decisions of these two groups of affiliates. We find that full members and sympathizers differ in the motives they have to join the party and in their evaluations of the diverse types of incentives included in the GIM. Candidate selection incentives seem particularly important for sympathizers, whereas selective outcome incentives, selective process benefits, collective outcome benefits and altruistic motivations play a more significant role for members. </jats:p>

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: general incentives model, joining parties, party membership, party sympathizers, political parties
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 21 Oct 2019 13:36
Last Modified: 19 Jan 2023 00:21
DOI: 10.1177/1354068819891047
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3058966