Can Stratarchically Organized Parties be Democratic? The Canadian Case

In this paper we are concerned with the fundamental question of internal party democracy. Must political parties that depend upon a substantial membership inevitably end as oligarchies? Has the emergence of the cartel party, the “public utility” of modern democracies, spelled an end to active citizen‐partisans? To approach this issue we explore the cartel theorists’ suggestion that stratarchical organizational forms might provide parties with a way out of an apparent democratic dead end. The paper considers the logic of such parties and then examines how Canadian parties have been organized around stratarchical principles. The second substantial part of the paper turns to an assessment, in terms of the standards adopted by the Canadian Democratic Audit, of how, and to what extent, these parties might be considered democratic institutions.