PART OF THE PARTY : continuity and discontinuity amongst political party memberships

This paper discusses the potential contribution of the sub-discipline of political marketing to our understanding of aspect of behaviour of political party members. The current available theory and empirical evidence indicating the existence of consumer behaviours amongst political party members is introduced and discussed. Theoretical and measurement frameworks from the fields of marketing and non-profit organisation studies are described. These are used to investigate an issue of enduring concern to political parties: what are the differences between those party members who remain in membership year after year, and those who are less stable in their membership behaviour. Exploratory empirical research designed to identify the significant differences between members who continually renewed their subscriptions and those whose membership was discontinuous is presented and discussed. The key differences retaining statistical significance when all other relevant variables were controlled for were found to be the extent to which respondents considered themselves socialised into the party, and the relative strength of membership density in the areas where respondents lived. The findings of the study imply that the differences between continuous and discontinuous political party membership may have very little to do with ideological belief. The benefit sought by those who purchase membership appear to be a sense of belonging to their party, and association with a successful organisation. Those who do not experience these benefits are those “unstable” members who are the most likely not to renew their subscriptions year after year. The main limitation of the study, a failure to take into account external environmental factors that might impact on membership behaviour, is taken into account, and a revised design for future research is suggested. The social divide: continuous and discontinuous membership in political parties Political marketing is a new and evolving sub-discipline. It brings the analytical frameworks and techniques familiar to marketers into the rough and tumble of party politics. However, proponents of the new discipline are not so naïve as to imagine that the theoretical framework on which marketing is based can transferred wholesale into the political arena (Lees-Marshment 2001). One point of difficulty, which has not yet been satisfactorily resolved, is identifying the “customer” of political parties and organisations. Analogies have been drawn between customers and voters (Smith and Saunders 1990) and the development of the discipline since, with its substantial emphasis on campaign studies and political communications (Scammell 1999), appears to indicate that most scholars in the field are content to concur with this view. The outcome of this debate is that less attention has been given to one group of political participants who enter into a direct and ongoing financial relationship with the party system: party members. Whilst it has been acknowledged that marketing frameworks might fruitfully be applied in the area of party membership management (Lock and Harris 1996, Lees-Marshment 2001, Johansen 2002), theoretical literature and empirical study in this field is scarce. This paper attempts to demonstrate how the results of applying theory and measurement frameworks from the field of marketing, combined with an analytical approach adapted from the arena of nonprofit studies, can be used towards resolving a problem which political scientists have not yet satisfactorily dealt with. In so doing, this paper attempts to demonstrate how marketing theory has the potential to advance knowledge in other fields of study. Nearly 50 years ago the eminent political scientist Maurice Duverger (1954) identified an area of immediate and enduring concern to political parties. How were they to know which of their members were “stable”, renewing their membership year after year, and which members were not? He considered that the ability to identify these members would “lead the way to a much more profound knowledge of the nature of the party community. Only then should we be able to distinguish the superficial variations which affect only the unstable members, from the real transformations which affect the stable” (pp86 -89). Whilst political scientists since Duverger have repeated the observation that there is turnover in political party membership (Bartolini 1983, Selle and Svåsand 1991) the frameworks used by political scientists researching individual political behaviour have mitigated against any examination of this issue. These frameworks fall into four general categories: surveys of general political activity (eg Almond and Verba 1963; Parry et al. 1992; Brady et al. 1999) joining behaviours (eg Olson 1965; Katz 1990; Heidar 1994), the factors underlying activism (eg Seyd and Whiteley 1992; Whiteley et al. 1994), and the political views of the members (eg Seyd and Whiteley 1992; Whiteley et al. 1994; Seyd and Whiteley 1999), with the implicit assumption that once the decision to join has been made, the only further decision left open to party members is whether or not to be active. This overlooks a simple truism. If membership is defined as having paid a subscription fee (Duverger 1954, Milbraith 1965) political party members have the option not to continue in membership once their subscription falls due for renewal. An opportunity to reconsider membership arises regularly, usually once a year. Bartolini’s study of historical membership data (1983) found that membership of political parties is volatile and sensitive to the political environment, the economic environment, and the needs of individual members. He suggested that the individual’s perceptions of membership, and the organisational perceptions of membership could be used as approaches to studying party membership trends. Political marketers with an interest in membership studies have added more substance to this line of thought. Bauer et al (1996) hypothesized that political party members go through processes similar to pre-purchase and post-purchase evaluation when deciding whether to join or stay in a party. Exploratory empirical research (Granik 2001) found evidence of four distinct consumer behaviours amongst new party members facing their first renewal decision. In marketing terms, the characteristics of political parties and the nature of membership are directly analogous to the characteristics of services observed by Shostack (1977); their intangibility, their experiential nature, and by simultaneous production and consumption. The stated aim of political parties is to achieve power of governance, which is a highly intangible offering. The status of membership is similarly intangible; it is an experience and little about it can physically be owned. The status of membership comes into being after payment of a subscription, and exists for a set period of time; therefore the member can only start to experience the full benefits of membership once that status has been achieved. These observations imply that marketing frameworks in general, and relationship marketing frameworks in particular, offer an appropriate means of facilitating study into membership turnover. Indeed, marketers have recently begun some analysis of the consumer behaviour of subscription-paying members of other types of associations. To date, the available literature has concentrated on identifying the reasons why members stay in associations. Ferguson and Brown (1991) hypothesized that delivering “quality service” to members would aid retention. Empirical work amongst trade union members (Van der Veen and Klandermans 1989) and in a professional association (Gruen et al 2000) found that the delivery of promised membership services indeed affected retention. These findings are congruent with those from exploratory empirical research into new party members, where variables with a statistically significant relationship with subscription renewal included the extent to which members considered their expectations of membership had been met, their overall feelings about joining, and their perceptions of whether they had received any benefits from their membership (Granik 1997). However, there are still considerable gaps in the marketing literature in relation to our understanding of the purchase of association membership. For example, the literature into consumer staying or switching behaviour does not yet include any research carried out in this specific purchase situation. A parallel body of literature by scholars of non-profit organizations contains themes recognisable to marketers as relevant to consumer behaviour. The approach found in the non-profit literature is to identify the differences that exist between groups of volunteers, and how those differences can be harnessed for the benefit of voluntary organizations. This approach is directly relevant to the investigation suggested by Duverger’s observations. Scholars in this field have concentrated primarily on the psychological differences between groups of volunteers. For example, Francies (1983) examined the concept of psychological needs as motivation, and concluded that the degree of match between psychological need and work assignment had a positive relationship with satisfaction and with retention. Latterly, the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) (Clary, Snyder and Ridge 1992, Clary et al 1998) has been developed to measure the functional benefits of volunteering along the dimensions of values, understanding, career, social, protective and enhancement benefits. Use of the VFI has found that congruence between the functional benefits sought, and those delivered predicts satisfaction and future volunteering intentions, but, to date, there has been no evidence that this congruence can predict actual retention. Nor has the VFI, to date, been used specifically in a membership environment. The remainder of this paper descri