Mi lesz a pártokkal? A pártok válságjelenségei és esetleges funkcióváltása a XXI. században
In his paper the author tries to find an answer to the question what role, task and function are awaiting political parties in the modern sense of the term in the twenty-first century. The author expounds that there is growing criticism of the activities of parties in developed democracies in public, in public discourse as well as in the literature of political science, in this respect the academic as well as non-academic views are similar. On the other hand, and almost parallel to the former one, there have been changes in the functioning of parties considered ‘classical’, certain well-known functions of parties are being pushed into the background, while different, hitherto fewer known functions gradually come into the foreground, moreover, they begin to play a significant role. Thus, crisis as well as a change of function are taking place almost simultaneously, in close interrelationship, raising basic issues. These are the following: will the parties survive in the long run in the democracies of the century? If they survive, how can they overcome their crisis symptoms and what kind of changes will that cause in their political and institutional roles?
If there is to be a change of function how radical it is going to be, and what will be its political and systemic significance?
The paper attempts to study these issues. Basically, its area of study is Europe, and mostly the world of developed democracies, however, it is at least as exciting an issue how the new parties of the East-Central, and Central European new democracies would enter the age bringing along crisis symptoms and potential changes of function of modern parties.