The Social Representativeness of German Party Membership

What is it about?

The article pursues three questions: does the socio-demographic profile of German party members resemble their voters profile? Do parties have memberships that are clearly distinctive with respect to their socio-demographic characteristics? And how have these differences between parties changed between 1998 and 2009? The results, based on the data of the Potsdam Party Membership Study 1998 and the German Party Membership Study 2009 show that with respect to the first question, all parties misrespresent their electorate to a similar extent; women, younger age groups, the less educated, and blue collar workers are the most underrepresented groups. With regard to clearly distinctive socio-demographic profiles of political parties, the results show that there are differences that are in accordance with the parties' traditions and political core values, for example a relatively high proportion of Catholics in the CDU (Christian Democrats) and of white collar workers and self-employed persons in the FDP (Liberals). But these differences are small, only partly in accordance with theoretical assumptions (cleavage theory), and they decreased between 1998 and 2009.

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Why is it important?

Political parties are to represent their voters' interests, and one argument in the scientific discussion assumes that to achieve this, party members must resemble the electorate's experiences and life situation, and parties must adress specific socio-demographic groups with their specific interests.