Politics remains a team sport: On the continued relevance of studying party organization

In advanced industrial democracies, politics has become heavily personalized. What are the implications of this process for research on, and the practice of, democracy? Some have called for a reconceptualization of the essence of modern democratic politics in a way that moves research away from the so-called party organization paradigm. We argue here for the continued relevance of (studying) party organizations. Shedding the theoretical baggage of the mass party ideal from the party organization paradigm, we maintain that, while political parties may structure elections less than in the past and have recently underperformed in safeguarding democratic norms and rules, personalization has actually increased their capacity in the parliamentary and governmental arenas. The party organization paradigm prompts us to problematize these contrasting developments and articulate normatively where exactly the shortcomings of current political parties lie when it comes to safeguarding liberal democracy.