Niche parties vs. mainstream parties. A comparative case study of Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) in Germany
Sonja Ruf
Seminar paper from the year 2023 in the subject Politics - Political Systems - Germany, grade: 3,0, University of Frankfurt (Main), language: English, abstract: Do niche parties include a higher value of their partybase and more opportunities of grass-root decision-making in their organizational framework?To find an approriate answer to this research question, a comparative case study is conducted. The two cases are represented by two parties, namely the german green party; Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, symbolically standing for a niche party and the german christian democratic party; CDU, standing for a typical mainstream party in Germany. The method of the presented analysis follows a qualitative approach. In consists more specifically in a qualitative content analysis after Udo Kuckartz, in which data about the organizational framework of both parties will be analysed.Ezrow et al. 2011 suppose that, the organisational framework of niche parties could offer a greater base for a close relationship between partybase and partelites due to more integrated mechanism of grass-root decision-making.
