Endre Borbáth

How does civil society shape the development of cleavages? While intermediary organisations, such as trade unions and churches, featured heavily in historical accounts, neo-cleavage theory tends to ignore the meso-level dynamics of the new ‘transnational’ divide beyond party politics. This agenda-setting article introduces a general framework for studying the relationship between civil society and cleavages, capable of facilitating comparisons across contexts. Specifically, the article identifies two mechanisms through which civil society – in different forms – can shape emerging cleavages: by structuring patterns of group-party linkage on the supply-side and by deepening social closure on the demand-side. The article develops hypotheses about how the changing structure of civil society in Western Europe affects its capacity to perform these functions. Empirical evidence from expert and population surveys, complemented by illustrative case studies, suggests that civil society continues to influence cleavage politics, albeit in more differentiated and volatile ways.

The cost-of-living crisis, unfolding in the shadow of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, highlighted policy positions not traditionally represented in European party systems and protest politics. Our study asks why large-scale protests, widely anticipated during Germany’s ‘Hot Autumn’ of 2022, did not materialize despite a severe cost-of-living crisis. Drawing on insights from social movement studies, we test the long-standing argument that successful mobilization depends on the presence of mobilizing agents that align programmatically with existing demand. We use an innovative multi-method design that combines individual-level survey data with protest event analysis to examine both protest potential and actual mobilization. The survey includes a conjoint experiment to identify factors influencing protest potential. Our findings show that despite strong public sympathy, the ‘Hot Autumn’ saw only moderate protest participation, as established trade unions and political parties from both the left and the right struggled to capitalize on the momentum. Instead, the left-nationalist Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) emerged as a new challenger, offering an economically left-wing, culturally nationalist platform that resonated with protest sympathizers. By analyzing how ideological (mis)alignment shapes protest dynamics, our study contributes to research on party-movement interactions and demonstrates how the two-dimensional structure of political conflict increasingly challenges traditional left-wing actors’ ability to mobilize.

The Covid-19 pandemic created a dual crisis for civil society organizations (CSOs): heightened demand for social support alongside restrictions that limited their capacity to mobilize people. This study investigates how volunteer-based CSOs fostered civic engagement amid these constraints, providing new empirical insights into their capabilities and limitations during times of crisis. Bridging research on both the demand and supply sides of civic engagement, we draw on three original studies – a comprehensive survey of CSOs, a large-scale population survey, and a survey experiment – to map responses to the crisis at both the individual and organizational levels. Our findings reveal persistent social inequalities in volunteering and mutual support, with CSOs primarily engaging men, highly educated individuals, affluent citizens, and those already active in organizations. Despite these pre-existing inequalities, CSO outreach significantly boosted engagement, particularly in more formal settings. This study contributes to ongoing debates about the role and transformation of civil society during periods of crisis, highlighting the challenges and opportunities that CSOs encountered as they navigated the pandemic.

Research on political parties and social movements has long developed independently, separated by the disciplinary boundaries of political science and sociology. We see the recent successes of ‘movement parties’ as a push to bridge the two disciplinary traditions in order to describe this new hybrid party type accurately. To this end, we ask to what extent and under what conditions do we observe movement parties in European party systems, and how can we define the various subtypes? In the introduction to the special issue, we make three contributions. First, we identify existing definitions and empirical examples in the study of movement parties based on a systematic review of the emerging literature. Second, we operationalize Herbert Kitschelt’s influential definition of lower levels of programmatic and organizational investment coupled with a higher degree of protest mobilization. Third, we introduce the individual contributions to the special issue and situate them within the relevant theoretical debates. Utilizing a new set of quantitative indicators, we empirically assess how parties identified as movement parties in the existing literature score on programmatic, organizational, and protest dimensions. The analysis underscores the heterogeneity of movement parties, with only a few cases aligning with Kitschelt’s comprehensive definition.

Despite growing attention to the resurgence of environmental, and especially climate-related mobilisation in Europe, comparative assessments across countries and over time are lacking. Using classic social movement theories (grievances, opportunities, resources), we examine the frequency, profile, and drivers of environmental protest. We conduct a two-step analysis based on the updated PolDem protest event dataset covering 27 European countries from 2000 to 2021. We move from descriptive accounts to dynamic regressions, modelling the cross-national and temporal variation in the number of environmental protests, the participants involved, and their share of all events. The results highlight 2019 as pivotal for environmental protests, with a peak in participants and heightened salience in Europe’s protest landscape. Typical environmental protests are well-attended, symbolic, and confrontational actions, exclusively focussed on the issue, and draw support from both professional and non-professional organisations. Temporal variation in the number and share of environmental protests is related to proxy measures for resources in the environmental field, while participation rates correlate with political opportunities as measured by governments’ positions on environmental protection. Thus, the simultaneous presence of opportunities and resources tends to create an ‘explosive mix’, fuelling environmental protest dynamics.