Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: How do parties respond to changes in their environment? Does organizational structure shape their response? Can one party respond differently than another? This paper addresses these questions in a structured, focused comparison of the responses of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to changing political identities among women voters in West Germany after the mid-1960s. It finds that rules governing internal hierarchies in each party created different internal processes of decision making. These decision-making processes created different opportunities for representatives of new voter identities to gain influence and shape party policy. The paper compares how organizational structures in the SPD and CDU shaped the entrance of new activists into the party, the institutionalization of women’s representation within the organization and the inclusion of women in peak decision making. It demonstrates that, with regard to the inclusion of changing interests among West German women, different organizational structures created a division of representational labor between the SPD and CDU. This observation is an intriguing departure from spatial models of party system change.