De Hersenen Achter de Partij: Variërende en Evoluerende Rollen van Partijpolitieke Denktanks

The most widely recognised entities enabling democracies to function properly are political parties. They are crucial for winning elections, creating impactful policies, and governing responsibly. However, the contemporary political landscape presents notable challenges to these parties, such as growing polarisation and the increasing importance of social media, pressuring them to prioritise remaining up-to-speed with day-to-day politics and quick and brief communication to gain short-term electoral gains. Moreover, increased electoral volatility, and internal pressures such as declining party membership, legislative turnover and leadership turnover contribute to instability and loss of know-how within political parties. In this challenging and unstable context, Political Party Think Tanks (PPTTs), also called the 'brains' behind political parties, can act as crucial partners. PPTTs help political parties with the execution of some of their core functions that often may be overlooked in the pursuit of winning the next elections, such as elite formation, socialisation, interest articulation and aggregation, and ideological development. Moreover, they can document and interpret the long-term societal trends that are key to future-oriented policymaking when parties are in office. PPTTs exist across party families and in a wide variety of countries, under country-specific labels. Examples of PPTTs include the 'party foundations' in Germany, the 'scientific institutes' in the Netherlands, the 'study centres' in Belgium, or the 'research centres' in Australia. Despite PPTTs' democratic importance and the variety of political activities they engage in, their roles remain undertheorised in the academic literature. Specifically, there is little theorisation on what their roles entail and how they vary in space and time. This knowledge gap contrasts sharply with our extensive understanding of their affiliated political parties and (non)-partisan think tanks. Consequently, the central aim of this dissertation is to establish a foundational work that will advance knowledge on the roles of this unique type of political organisation. The dissertation addresses the following overarching research question: How do the roles of PPTTs in the European political landscape vary and evolve? To answer this central research question, this dissertation consists of a collection of four empirical chapters, preceded by a general introduction (Chapter 1) and followed by a general conclusion (Chapter 6). The first empirical chapter, Chapter 2, is an exploratory descriptive chapter that introduces PPTTs in EU member states, this chapter analyses the party ties of members of European Political Foundations (EPFs), which are networks of national PPTTs. By reviewing the literature on think tank affiliations, gathering data through exploratory contacts with 37 EPF members and a content analysis of 166 official websites of EPF members, this chapter offers insight into the variety of party ties among EPF members, and the ideological and geographical distribution of national PPTTs across EU member states. It shows that PPTTs are mainly concentrated in Western Europe and mainstream party families. Chapter 3 serves as the key foundation upon which Chapters 4 and 5 are built. To delve into the roles that PPTTs play in contemporary politics, this chapter develops a typology of their key functions (distinguishing between political party and think tank functions), and target audiences (distinguishing between internal and external target groups). This chapter draws upon an iterative process in which a comprehensive review of the think tank and political party literature, is combined with a comparative analysis of 22 contemporary Dutch and Flemish PPTTs. Data is collected based on 22 in-depth interviews, triangulated with a review of their activities and publications posted on the PPTT websites, party websites and PPTT social media channels. Four types of PPTTs are identified in the analysis: 1) 'Party Assistants', assisting the party in its daily operations and primary functions by performing party functions, 2) 'Party Supporters', engaged in think tank work aimed at supporting the party, 3) 'Party Promoters', responsible for disseminating party ideas to a broader audience, and 4) 'Party Intellectuals', performing ideologically driven intellectual work intended for a wider public. The characteristics of these four types are illustrated through the analysis of four paradigmatic cases: the Flemish liberal Study Centre Open Vld as an example of a Party Assistant, the Dutch Greenleft Scientific Bureau GroenLinks as an example of a Party Supporter, the Dutch far-right Renaissance Institute as an example of a Party Promoter, and the Dutch liberal TeldersFoundation as an example of a Party Intellectual. Chapter 4 explains under which conditions PPTTs perform think tank or party functions. Building upon the proposed typology in Chapter 3, this chapter analyses the conditions that shape these functions. Employing Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), this chapter examines the necessity and sufficiency of system (legal and financial autonomy) and organisational level conditions (organisational autonomy, party type, and PPTT leader's background) in shaping the functions. Leveraging case knowledge of 22 PPTTs in the Netherlands and Flanders through 22 in-depth interviews triangulated with a review of organigrams, publications, statutes and activities found on the PPTT and party websites, the research reveals that system level autonomy proves necessary, and the combination of system and organisational conditions sufficient, in explaining the variety of PPTTs' functions. The final empirical chapter, Chapter 5, studies how the roles of PPTTs have evolved in response to broader changes in mainstream political parties. Over recent decades, several trends have challenged mainstream political parties, with PPTTs, serving as their intellectual cornerstones, being particularly affected due to their formal and financial dependence on their respective parties. This chapter analyses how these drivers of party change have influenced the roles of PPTTs, focusing specifically on the PPTTs of two mainstream Flemish political parties: the social democratic 'Vooruit' and the Christian democratic 'cd&v'. Employing an abductive approach, this chapter integrates data from 18 interviews with current and former leading PPTT representatives, alongside archival material, official state and party websites. The findings reveal that both PPTTs have undergone a similar transformation, evolving from Party Intellectuals to Party Assistants. This evolution is driven by an interplay of factors, including new party funding regulations, electoral defeats, loss of office, new party leadership, and changes in PPTT organisational structures. The overarching conclusion is that the roles of PPTTs vary in space and time, and that this variation is shaped by interconnected factors on different levels: (a) system-level factors: i.e. system level autonomy which is defined by national party legislation, (b) party factors: i.e. party type, electoral results, party leadership, and whether the party is in government or opposition, and (c), PPTT factors: i.e. organisational autonomy, staff organisation and PPTT leadership background. System- and party-level features thus largely determine the roles of PPTTs. Although PPTT organisational features play a role in how their roles develop, these features are often shaped by the broader system in which they operate and by the party to which they are affiliated.