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A business-firm party, entrepreneurial party, [2] or personal party [3] [4] is a type of political party that is centered on a charismatic political entrepreneur, most often created by that person to further their own interests. [5]
It can be considered "the most extreme case of party personalization, consisting in the full control by an individual leader of the party he has himself created", in the words of political scientist Mauro Calise. [3] A business-firm party is modeled off the top-down organizational structure of a corporation [6] [7] as opposed to operating on the basis of internal party democracy. [8] The party structure is related to the older type of elite party, but is even more strongly oligarchic in form, as the political entrepreneur maintains complete control of the party's assets. [5] The entrepreneur controls all aspects of the party's platform and campaigning, plays the ultimate role in selecting candidates to run in elections, managing the party's resources, and wielding party discipline over other politicians in the party. [3]
One characteristic distinguishing them from other parties is that the party organization is either dormant or limited outside of campaign seasons, and members are actively discouraged from becoming more involved in the party, therefore leading entrepreneurial parties to lack grassroots capacity. [3] Entrepreneurial parties may have only one member, the party leader (as in the case of Party for Freedom or the Ticino League), or very few aside from politicians. The Party for Freedom initially did not recruit members out of fear of infiltration by the far-right; later, deputy leader Martin Bosma said that a party membership structure interfered with direct accountability between party leadership and voters. In a completely memberless business-firm party, volunteers, donors, and officeholders invest time, money, and their reputation (if the party is controversial) without any formal say in the party's operations. [7]
More monocratic systems of government, such as presidential systems, tend to encourage the formation of personal parties while the personalization of politics fuels the centralization of power. [9] : 9 Entrepreneurial parties tend to be short-lived and rarely outlast their founders, except where the entrepreneur is successful in using his charisma to build a mass-membership party, as in the case of the Finns Party. [3] [10] [11] Due to the lack of grassroots mobilization, leader-oriented parties may be less successful in local and regional politics, which are more distant from the charismatic leader, as occurred with ANO 2011 and Forza Italia. [6] [12]
Entrepreneurial parties are commonly far-right, nationalist, and/or populist. [5] However, another tendency is not to have a firm ideology and instead closely follow opinion polls while being vague or self-contradictory on the party's standpoint. [6] Tatiana Kostadinova and Barry Levitt argue that in a personalist party, "interactions between the leader and other politicians are driven mainly by loyalty to that leader rather than, for example, organizational rules, ideological affinities, or programmatic commitments". [8] Business-firm parties are likely to emerge in new democracies [13] and in situations of high electoral volatility. [5] They may also result from declines in political participation and membership in traditional parties. [7] In central Europe, entrepreneurial parties have formed as a type of state capture where state powers are used for private benefit. [14] Entrepreneurial parties are especially common in Latin America. [5]
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany requires that political parties "conform to democratic principles" in their internal organization. [15] [16] When the Socialist Reich Party was banned in 1952, the Federal Constitutional Court's judgement stated: "If a party's internal organization does not correspond to democratic principles, one may generally conclude that the party seeks to impose upon the state the structural principles that it has implemented within its own organization." [16] The constitutions of Portugal, Spain, Argentina, and Turkey include similar provisions. [16] Israeli jurist Yigal Mersel argues that non-democratically organized parties are undesirable because "There is a greater likelihood of the pursuit of nondemocratic goals in parties that have a nondemocratic structure." [16]
The Democratic Party, abbreviated to PD, was a minor social-liberal political party in Poland. It had no members of the Sejm, Senate, or European Parliament.
Populism is a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group with "the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term developed in the late 19th century and has been applied to various politicians, parties and movements since that time, often as a pejorative. Within political science and other social sciences, several different definitions of populism have been employed, with some scholars proposing that the term be rejected altogether.
Forza Italia was a centre-right liberal-conservative political party in Italy, with Christian-democratic, liberal, social-democratic and populist tendencies. It was founded by Silvio Berlusconi, who served as Prime Minister of Italy four times.
The Party of the Democratic Left was a social-democratic political party in Slovakia from 1990 to 2004. It was founded in 1990 out of the Communist Party of Slovakia.
Law and Justice is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński.
The Rally for the Republic – Republican Party of Czechoslovakia is a minor political party in the Czech Republic, strongly opposed to the EU, NATO and immigration. The party and its leader Miroslav Sládek are particularly known for their radical attitudes towards Roma people (antiziganism) and Germans.
The term "illiberal democracy" describes a governing system that hides its "nondemocratic practices behind formally democratic institutions and procedures". There is a lack of consensus among experts about the exact definition of illiberal democracy or whether it even exists.
National conservatism is a nationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national, cultural identity, communitarianism and the public role of religion. It shares aspects of traditionalist conservatism and social conservatism, while departing from economic liberalism and libertarianism, as well as taking a more agnostic approach to regulatory economics and protectionism. National conservatives usually combine conservatism with nationalist stances, emphasizing cultural conservatism, family values and opposition to illegal immigration or opposition to immigration per se. National conservative parties often have roots in environments with a rural, traditionalist or peripheral basis, contrasting with the more urban support base of liberal conservative parties.
Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti-elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establishment, and speaking to or for the "common people". Recurring themes of right-wing populists include neo-nationalism, social conservatism, economic nationalism and fiscal conservatism. Frequently, they aim to defend a national culture, identity, and economy against perceived attacks by outsiders. Right-wing populism has remained the dominant political force in the Republican Party in the United States since the 2010s.
The Czechoslovak National Democracy, called also Czechoslovak National Democratic Party, was a First Republic right-wing political party in Czechoslovakia.
Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some scholars consider it to represent the left of social democracy, while others limit it to the left of communist parties. In certain instances—especially in the news media—far left has been associated with some forms of authoritarianism, anarchism, communism, and Marxism, or are characterized as groups that advocate for revolutionary socialism and related communist ideologies, or anti-capitalism and anti-globalization. Far-left terrorism consists of extremist, militant, or insurgent groups that attempt to realize their ideals through political violence rather than using democratic processes.
Tomio Okamura is a Czech far-right politician and entrepreneur. He founded the Czech political parties Dawn of Direct Democracy and Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD). Since October 2013, he has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic (MP), initially for Dawn of Direct Democracy and then from May 2015 for SPD, of which he is also leader. He previously served as an independent Senator for Zlín district from October 2012 until his election to the Chamber of Deputies a year later.
The centre-right coalition is a political alliance of political parties in Italy active under several forms and names since 1994, when Silvio Berlusconi entered politics and formed the Forza Italia party. It has mostly competed with the centre-left coalition. It is composed of right-leaning parties in the Italian political arena, which generally advocate tax reduction and oppose immigration, and in some cases are eurosceptic.
Domenico Comino is an Italian politician, who served as the minister of European affairs and state minister in the mid-1990s.
Dawn – National Coalition, short Dawn, Dawn of Direct Democracy or Tomio Okamura's Dawn of Direct Democracy, was a right-wing populist, Eurosceptic political party in the Czech Republic.
ANO 2011, often shortened to simply ANO, the initials meaning Action of Dissatisfied Citizens, is a populist political party in the Czech Republic. The party has been labelled as centrist on the political spectrum by some sources, while others state that it is a centre-right party. At the European level ANO is a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party and the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament. The party is led by entrepreneur Andrej Babiš, who served as Prime Minister in 2017–2021.
Freedom and Direct Democracy is a right-wing populist political party in the Czech Republic. It is led by Tomio Okamura and it holds 20 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.
Populism exists in Europe.
Techno-populism is either a populism in favor of technocracy or a populism concerning certain technology – usually information technology – or any populist ideology conversed using digital media. It can be employed by single politicians or whole political movements respectively. Neighboring terms used in a similar way are technocratic populism, technological populism and cyber-populism. Italy’s Five Star Movement and France’s La République En Marche! have been described as technopopulist political movements.
Hanspeter Kriesi is a professor of political science at the European University Institute in Florence where he holds the Stein Rokkan Chair in Comparative Politics. Previously, he has been teaching at the universities of Amsterdam, Geneva and Zurich. He was born in Bischofszell, Switzerland.