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Discussions of a presumed shift toward more participatory styles of politics often focus on ‘unconventional’participation and on ways citizens may circumvent traditional partisan channels of representative democracy. However, political parties remain central players in the democratic processes of the OECD nations (Dalton and Wattenberg 2000; Webb, Farrell, and Holliday 2002). Party actions help shape the nature of participation opportunities and even influence the level of participation within any given society (Rosenstone and Hansen 1992; Gray and Caul 2000). Thus, if we are to have a clear picture of the ways that political participation takes place in democracies, it is essential to include developments shaped by, and occurring within, the political parties themselves.

Of course, even within democracies, parties differ widely in the extent to which they encourage participation and distribute responsibility for decision-making among their supporters. There is nothing wrong with this: as EE Schattschneider (1942: 60) reminded us long ago, democracy exists in the competition between parties, not within them. So parties that operate on a non-democratic basis are not per se a threat to democracy. Yet this does not mean that it is not possible or perhaps even desirable to have democracy within parties, only that intra-party democracy is not essential to guarantee the democratic life of the broader polity. And indeed, since Schattschneider made his observations, social and political transformations appear to have significantly altered citizens’ views about how political processes should operate. Rising levels of education, information, and the subsequent …