The Party Abroad and Its Role for National Party Politics

Abstract

Despite proliferating research on party politics and notable media engagement with the issues of migration and refugee flows, we know little about the existence and operation of ‘the party abroad’. The latest UN migration report states that more than 270 million people reside outside their country of origin. OSCE recognizes the need for representation of varied political views as one means to maintain democratic stability within states.

This study unravels the notion of the ‘party abroad’, develops a theoretical legal framework within which it can exist, and empirically exams parties that operate abroad. The case studies show the potential for political engagement with the diaspora, that such operations are not systematically regulated at the moment, and that parties operating abroad have different financing models. These findings, coupled with increasing migration, call for more future work on the ‘party abroad’, both by academics and by professionals.