Inside the Black Box: Parties as Multi-level Organisations in a Unitary State

This article addresses the issue of how parties organise and work across territory in unitary states. Concentrating on policy-making in Norway, it provides a multi-dimensional description of intra-party links and power relations. Norwegian parties tend to be well-integrated, partially governed bottom-up, rather centralised, and to allow significant local autonomy. Hence, the findings support the hypothesis that non-hierarchical elements might develop within parties in unitary, as well as federal, settings. However, the parties examined are still quite far from the stratarchical imperative described in Katz and Mair’s cartel party thesis, and the documented degree of vertical integration and, to a lesser extent, centralisation corresponds to the unitary nature of the state. The article briefly speculates on what might explain the somewhat conflicting nature of Norwegian party organisations. Finally, this case study demonstrates that territorial relationships within parties potentially include a complex web of both formal links and informal interactions.