Exploring party change: the professionalisation of the UK's three Green parties crossing the representation threshold

摘要

Studies of political parties have evidenced a clear impetus for organisational change and professionalisation when a party crosses the representation threshold, though the process by which this change occurs remains under-researched. We use a case study of the UK's three Green parties to provide a focused examination of the professionalisation-through-representation process. Our study finds clear evidence that all three parties have professionalised to an extent as a result of securing representation. By evaluating the empirical findings in relation to key debates within the party organisational change literature, we show that professionalisation-through-representation does not necessarily require deliberate decisions by actors across a party, it can be largely uni-directional (though in this case the Greens have maintained a relatively consistent presence in legislatures) and is shaped by institutional rules on the public provision of funding and staff as well as parties' own origins.