The Trias Politica Revisited
Research Question
What is the impact of court decisions on the behaviour and organization of political parties? To what extent have the courts been politicized? How does the background of judges influence their decision-making?
Project Description
While it is generally assumed that in democratic systems a structural separation of powers exists between the several branches of the state, political parties and the courts have become much more closely intertwined in recent decades. My project focuses on the changing relationship between political parties and the judiciary in post-war European democracies. It examines the judicialization of party politics by investigating the impact of court decisions on the activities and organizational structures of political parties, as well as the politicization of the judiciary by investigating the nature of partisan influences on judicial appointments. It furthermore aims to arrive at a model of judicial decision-making by analyzing the influence of the judges’ partisan background and their personal preferences and attitudes on their decisions relating to political parties.
Selected Publications
1) The Regulation of Post-Communist Party Politics (co-editor with Fernando Casal-Bértoa), London: Routledge, 2018.
2) ‘The Paradox of Party Funding: The Limited Impact of State Subsidies on Party Membership’ (with Petr Kopecký), in Thomas Poguntke, Susan Scarrow, and Paul Webb (eds.), Organizing Political Parties: Participation, Representation and Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, pp. 84-105.
3) Regulating Political Parties: European Democracies in Comparative Perspective (co-editor with Hans-Martien ten Napel), Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2014.