Political Parties and Organisations Research Group

The group is based on the understanding that political parties and organisations remain an important aspect, though manifestly a problematic one to the study of politics. For long, political parties were considered central to democratic politics and perceived as frequently significant within non-democratic systems. Recent decades, however, have called into question many of the fundamental perceptions about parties and their role in political systems, with many scholars identifying new forms of party activity and organisation. The development of populism has, of course, added to this challenge to conventional research.  

This group provides a forum for research into this area, studying political parties and their discontents, broadly defined. It also provides links with those working on these themes in other schools within the University of Bristol.