Overview
- Offers conceptual insights into the phenomenon of entrepreneurial parties
- Combines a fresh and innovative conceptual treatment with rich and accurate empirical evidence
- Examines the rise of political entrepreneurs from a broad comparative perspective
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology (PSEPS)
Access this book
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Other ways to access
About this book
Political parties run by entrepreneurs as a means to their own end are a recent phenomenon found in many countries, and their electoral influence has never been greater. This book offers a thorough comparative analysis of such ‘business-firm’ and sometimes oddly memberless parties in Western and East-Central Europe, assessing the considerable corpus of literature on the growing band of political entrepreneurs. The book clearly separates such party enterprises from other, more traditional, political platforms as it contributes to our understanding of the potential of entrepreneurial parties. The authors offer a unique typology based on two characteristics: whether the party receives private financial, media or other investment; and the nature of its membership and territorial structure. Famous examples of entrepreneurial parties, including Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and Geert Wilders’s Party for Freedom, alongside their lesser-known counterparts, servein this book as valuable material for conceptual innovation and the investigation into why certain entrepreneurial party types succeed or fail.
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
- European party politics
- comparative politics
- entrepreneurial parties
- political entrepreneurs
- East-Central Europe
- Western Europe
- business and politics
- party institutionalisation
- Forza Italia
- Palikot’s Movement
- Team Stronach
- Igor Matovič
- Geert Wilders
- Carl I. Hagen
- Tomio Okamura
- Dawn of Direct Democracy
Table of contents (7 chapters)
-
Front Matter
-
Back Matter
Reviews
“The book has succeeded in moving us forward in the continuous search for different party types. Its definition, typology and differentiation of specific entrepreneurial parties should be appreciated, not only by political scientists and students of politics, but also by politicians and journalists, interested in the practice of party politics.” (Lukáš Hájek, European Political Science, Vol. 21, 2022)
“The book makes important conceptual, analytical and empirical contributions to the study of party politics. … the study provides a comprehensive account of recent developments that informs us about the variation between entrepreneurial parties. The book is a meticulous and extensively documented study that could be useful to both academic audiences and practitioners interested in the formation, persistence and failure of new parties.” (Sergiu Gherghina, Party Politics, Vol. 28 (5), 2022)
“This is a highly relevant and pioneering study that should intrigue all academics studying European politics. … Richness of the accounts the book offers is its yet another major strength, arising certainly to no small degree from the brave descriptions of all sorts of behind-closed-doors dealings. Indeed, with how well the book documents the party-building process with respect to its success or failure, one could even remark that it would make an excellent read for political entrepreneurs themselves.” (Filip Fila, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, November 11, 2020)
“Among the most striking developments in European party politics in recent times has been the emergence of what Vít Hloušek and his co-authors label ‘entrepreneurial’ parties. Drawing on examples from across the European continent, the authors chart the rise, fall and occasional endurance of entrepreneurial parties, highlighting their internal structures, sources of finance and pitches to the electorate. This is a pioneering study furnished with fascinating insights and detailed analysis from which scholars and students of political parties will learn a lot.” (Tim Haughton, University of Birmingham, UK)“This is a pioneering study which brings a comparative typology to bear on an important and under-explored set of parties hitherto mainly researched as individual case studies. It is also especially to be commended for bringing together parties from both Western and Eastern Europe in a single coherent analytical framework, and for unravelling the difficult distinction between partiesfounded by businesses and businesspeople and a broader set of top-down start-up parties created with a looser ‘entrepreneurial’ rationale. The book will be essential reading for anyone wanting to get to grips with some of the more recent shifts in the landscape of party politics in contemporary Europe and their consequences for democratic politics.” (Seán Hanley, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK)
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Vít Hloušek is Professor of European Politics at Masaryk University, Czech Republic.
Lubomír Kopeček is Professor of Political Science at Masaryk University, Czech Republic.
Petra Vodová is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Rise of Entrepreneurial Parties in European Politics
Authors: Vít Hloušek, Lubomír Kopeček, Petra Vodová
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41916-5
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-41915-8Published: 22 April 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-41918-9Published: 23 April 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-41916-5Published: 21 April 2020
Series ISSN: 2946-6016
Series E-ISSN: 2946-6024
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 215
Topics: Political Science and International Relations, general, European Politics, Political Sociology, Comparative Politics, Political History, Biotechnology