Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Political entrepreneurs and their parties: conceptual and typological issuesTypes of parties in the context of historical and social trendsConceptual differences, definition and concept of entrepreneurial partiesA typology of entrepreneurial partiesThe institutionalisation of entrepreneurial partiesResearch sources and instruments
Chapter 3 The party as a spin-off from a business empireThe (in)famous pioneer: Berlusconi's Forza Italia 'Down with the dinosaurs ' or too private Public Affairs in CzechiaManage everything as a firm: Andrej Babis's ANO in CzechiaOn the wrong side of Lithuanian law: Viktor Uspaskich and his Labour PartyPalikot's Movement: a one-off sensation involving a Polish political provocateur Similarities and differences
Chapter 4 Two tycoons and their one-man showsAustria's Team Stronach: politics as a failed financial investmentThe Slovak performer Igor Matovič and his Ordinary People Similarities and differences
Chapter 5 Entrepreneurial parties without firms and without membersHow to build a successful project: Geert Wilders' Party for FreedomA closed party failed project: Tomio Okamura's Dawn of Direct Democracy Similarities and differences
Chapter 6 How to build a party organisation without financial capitalThe Norwegian Progress Party: From a free-wheeling, indignant dog-kennel owner to a centralist leader Pawel Kukiz: a Polish punk-rock star's campaign against political parties Tomio Okamura's struggle on behalf of the Czech nation against immigrant 'parasites'Similarities and differences
Chapter 7 Collapse or survival: the organisational resilience of entrepreneurial partiesRisks posed by political entrepreneurship to democratic politics
Synopsis
Political parties run by entrepreneurs as a means to their own end are a recent phenomenon found in many countries, and their electoral influence has never been greater. This book offers a thorough comparative analysis of such 'business-firm' and sometimes oddly memberless parties in Western and East-Central Europe, assessing the considerable corpus of literature on the growing band of political entrepreneurs. The book clearly separates such party enterprises from other, more traditional, political platforms as it contributes to our understanding of the potential of entrepreneurial parties. The authors offer a unique typology based on two characteristics: whether the party receives private financial, media or other investment; and the nature of its membership and territorial structure. Famous examples of entrepreneurial parties, including Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia and Geert Wilders's Party for Freedom, alongside their lesser-known counterparts, serve in this book as valuable material for conceptual innovation and the investigation into why certain entrepreneurial party types succeed or fail.