Political party assistance and political party research: towards a closer encounter?

Generally speaking the effects of international political party assistance are viewed negatively or at least controversially. This study attributes some of the shortcomings of political party aid to the poor relationship between assistance providers and political science party research. They simply operate in different worlds. Party assistance lacks clear-cut concepts and strategies in practice, which makes it difficult to evaluate it adequately. At issue is its 'standard method', with its 'transformative' intention to change the party organization of the assistance receivers. At the same time, the scholarship on political parties can provide only limited help to assistance providers due to its own conceptual and methodological restrictions, such as the Western European bias of its major concepts, the predominance of a functionalist approach, and the scant empirical research on political parties outside Europe and the US. Taking a cue from recent political party research, we could begin to question the overarching role of political parties in the transition and consolidation process of new democracies. Other research findings emphasize the co-existence of different types of party organizations, and the possibility of different organizational developments, which might all be consistent with consolidating democracy. All this suggests abandoning the controversial transformative aim of political party aid.