Jan Schoofs, who contributed to our research project on party reform as Visiting Fellow, sheds light on recent efforts of German parties to adapt their organizations to the changing social, economic, and political environment. He carves out strategies that go beyond merely sustaining robust membership numbers, and states:
The successful member party is a learning party.
Read his full article on the AICGS blog.
As lessons can be drawn from international comparison, you may have a look at the project results here too (German).
Author
Jan Schoofs was a Visiting Fellow of Das Progressive Zentrum from 2014 to 2015 in the project Legitimation and Self-Efficacy: Future Impulses for Party Democracy. He works as a research assistant at the NRW School of Governance (University of Duisburg-Essen).