In his piece »The Party Paradox: How Political Parties Power Democracy—and Dominate It«, Professor Emanuel V. Towfigh sheds light on one of the fundamental ambivalences of modern democracies: the role of political parties. They are indispensable transmission belts for the formation of political will, yet at the same time, they develop an internal dynamic that threatens to stifle democratic competition.

He argues that parties are not inherently democratic. Rather, they are “technologies of power.” Their structure follows no universal principles, but rather context-specific assumptions about how power should be exercised and secured. A central point of the article is the comparison of legal cultures, highlighting the different ways parties are embedded in Germany and the USA, among others.
He takes a particularly critical look at the phenomenon of “political lockups.” Instead of fostering compromise, parties are increasingly becoming engines of polarization. They reward loyalty over deliberation and conformity over pluralism. Internal democracy often falls by the wayside, while control over candidate selection and parliamentary blocs becomes centralized.

The inclusion of the article in the »100 Ideas in 100 Days« series for the New York University (NYU) Democracy Project underscores the relevance of this constitutional and political-economic analysis beyond Germany’s borders. It is a plea to have a closer look into the “black box” of intra-party organization in order to make democracies everywhere in the world more resilient.