Membership Parties

Membership parties usually have a smaller number of supporters. This is because they often have strict ideologies that party members share. As a result, these parties expect a lot from their members and generally have a very close relationship with them. Their policies are based on their ideology and values. This makes it more likely that members will agree with each other, and promotes strong unity among party members. On the other hand, they often get less support from non- members because not everyone in society agrees with their specific ideology. Examples of membership parties include some nationalist parties, communist parties and parties based on ethnicity or religion.

Mass Parties

Mass parties try to get as much support as possible. For this reason they do not expect a lot of participation from their nonprofessional members. A mass party’s main goal is to get as many votes as possible. A common word for mass parties is “catch all” parties because they put forward policies that try to “catch” as many supporters as possible. As a result, mass parties do not usually have very strict ideologies. Their ideology is usually in the middle: not too liberal, not too socialist and not too conservative. However, because they try to represent so many different voices and opinions, party members do not always agree with each other. This means that this kind of party is generally less unified than membership parties (McLaughlin 2013:155).

Parties of Special Interest

Parties of special interest feel responsible for the interests of a very specific group (a social, confessional, or regional group) and do not claim to be equally eligible for all parts of the population. For example the Dutch freedom party (PVV) advocates views that most voters consider to be extreme, this prevents them from gaining mass support. However, the founder and leader of the freedom party does not want his party to be a membership organisation. Another example from the Netherlands is the Party of the Animals that focusses particularly on environmental issues and issues concerning animal rights (IPP and NIMD 2008: 19).