Jan Teorell

Jan Teorell: Demokrati eller fåtalsvälde?
Om beslutsfattande i partiorganisationer.
the process surrounding the 1992 crisis deals
Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
Skrifter utgivna av statsvetenskapliga föreningen i Uppsala, 129. 391 pp. ISBN 91-554-4306-0.

Robert Michels's so called "iron law of oligarchy" has nurtured a long-standing interest in the internal life of party organisations. Yet there has been few systematic investigations of intra-party decision making.

This dissertation tests Michels's hypothesis on the basis of a comparative case study of two decision-making processes in the two largest political parties in Sweden: the Social Democrats and the Conservatives (the Moderate Party).

Three dimensions of oligarchy versus democracy are considered: the actual influence exercised by the party organisation, its opportunity to influence, and its possibility to hold the decision-makers accountable. The two decision-making processes studies are selected on the basis of importance and equivalence as well as a most-different cases argument for representativeness.

The first is the process surrounding the 1992 crisis deals, the second concerns the latest program revisions of the two parties.

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