On Political Parties in Contemporary Democracies: From the classic perspective to the current debate

The crisis of political parties in contemporary societies and democracies is composed of differ-ent points of views, that require a joint effort for social and political science to try to understand the changing relationship between citizens and parties. Compared to the political mass models, which are typ-ical of the second half of the twentieth century, parties undergo deep processes of transformation. The beginning of a critical season for the traditional forms of political organization goes back to those years; and this critical season can be configured as ideological, organizational and institutional. Between the twentieth and twenty-first century, the political parties has strengthened the structure of their political organization and the weight of their parliamentary activities within the institutions, becoming more and more "state-centered parties", characterized by the progressive reduction of the forms of territorial set-tlement and the growth of the importance of central organisms and the representatives of the assemblies, especially those elected in national parliaments. This results in significant changes of the organizational model and their political functions. In the face of these changes, will the parties still remain a key player for the functioning of contemporary democracy? We will focus on three fundamental steps: the analysis of the creation process of parties and of their function; the description of the most recent perspectives in political parties; the analysis of the relationship between the personalisation of politics and the passage to leader democracy.

当代社会与民主进程中的政党危机涉及多元视角，亟需社会科学与政治科学携手协作，以厘清公民与政党之间不断演变的互动关系。相较于20世纪后半叶盛行的大众政党模式，当代政党正经历着深刻的转型历程。传统政治组织形式的临界转折期可追溯至彼时，这一临界阶段可从意识形态、组织架构与制度层面三个维度加以界定。在20世纪至21世纪间，各国政党强化了自身的政治组织架构，提升了议会活动在体制内的权重，愈发演变为"以国家为中心的政党"：其典型特征为地域性党组织布局逐步萎缩，中央机构与议会代表（尤其是各国议会选举产生的议员）的地位持续攀升。这直接推动政党的组织模式与政治职能发生显著变革。面对上述变革，政党是否仍将是维系当代民主运行的核心主体？本研究将围绕三大核心议题展开：其一，剖析政党的创建历程及其职能；其二，梳理政党研究领域的最新研究视角；其三，探讨政治个人化与向领袖主导型民主转型之间的内在关联。