Understanding the Impact of Party Laws on Electoral Campaigning

It is hard to develop a definition of political parties which does not emphasise their electoral function. Yet the environment that political parties act in, the characteristics of political parties themselves and their ability to engage voters affects not only how they campaign but also their ability to campaign. While extensive research has been done about the development of campaigning practices over time and the financing of political parties, new developments in the legal forms of political parties, and changing party and data protection laws need further analysis to understand the effects these issues have on a party’s ability to campaign.

The goal of this Research Topic is to explore how party laws affect political parties as campaign organisations, and whether it impedes a political party’s democratic function of being able to reach and represent voters. The Research Topic will explore both regulatory context and the legal forms of political parties, and the extent to which this affects their campaigning activity. By doing so, contributions to this Research Topic will address an important gap in the literature on political parties and party law which has primarily focused on the need for political parties to be regulated, particularly during elections, with limited focus on what this means for a political parties’ ability to undertake its democratic function.

The Research Topic invites both qualitative and quantitative contributions that cover party law with a focus on how the regulatory environment affects the ability of political parties to campaign, both offline and online. Contributions from across the globe are welcome, as well as single-case, comparative and large N Studies. The Research Topic is open to a broad variety of methodological approaches from the social sciences, especially political science, communication and law.

This Research Topic welcomes contributions addressing but not limited to the following or related subjects:
• Analysis of the effect of a political parties’ legal form on campaigning
• The relationship between party law and campaigning practice
• Impact of regulatory context on data-driven campaigning or grassroots campaigning
• Evaluation of the impact of requirements of intra-party democracy, and the role of members in campaigning.
• Comparative analysis of regulations affecting political party campaigning.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Conceptual Analysis
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Political parties, Campaigning, Party law, Electoral regulation, Voter engagement, Comparative politics

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.