How the United States Can Support Nascent Political Parties

Supporting democracy and human rights overseas is front and center in the Biden administration’s foreign policy. The White House has committed to hold a “summit for democracy” this year, vocally condemned human rights abuses by China, and called for budget increases in foreign assistance and diplomacy critical to execute its democracy agenda abroad.  

As the Biden team designs this agenda, it will take stock of existing democracy assistance approaches and toolkits to make sure they address the current landscape of threats (i.e., a rise in Russian and Chinese malign influence) and changing needs of democracy partners on the ground (i.e., training on new technology). One area that is in desperate need of an update is how the U.S. helps strengthen political parties abroad, something it has done since the 1980s. 

The U.S. approach to supporting parties has not kept pace with the evolution of these organizations over the last ten years. Increasingly, political parties are taking novel forms that arise from so called “people power” movements and often focus more on mobilizing voters than formulating policy.  

One of the four most common types of parties today are those that emerge from mass protest movements and widespread latent dissatisfaction with traditional parties. Examples include the Five Star Movement in Italy, the Union to Save Romania, the New Conservative Party in Latvia, and Semilla in Guatemala.

Getting support to this party type ‘right’ is important because many of the countries where these entities are emerging matter for U.S. interests. In both the Czech Republic and Slovakia – NATO allies on the front line of countering Russian and Chinese influence – new, anti-establishment parties are running the government, as traditional parties have struggled with accusations of corruption and failure to meet citizen needs. 

In Mexico and Brazil, both major strategic partners of the United States, emergent political organizations have taken power. In Iraq, citizens protesting government corruption and inefficiencies have formed several new parties to contest the October 2021 elections and challenge the political establishment. Yet in these and other contexts, the United States lacks an approach to structure its support of such nascent parties.

Here, we outline recommendations for selecting which parties to support and then a framework to maximize effectiveness of U.S. assistance to them.

A Framework for Selecting and Supporting Nascent Parties

The first step is to determine which movement-turned-party to support. No matter the context, and as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) political party’s policy outlines, the United States should only support parties committed to democratic practices and norms and equality for all citizens; respect for human rights and the rule of law; and respect for freedom of religion, press, speech, and association. To these factors, the United States should add parties’ internal democratic practices, since organizations that are managed on a democratic basis internally are far more likely to produce leaders that behave democratically. 

Once the U.S has determined which existing or aspiring party to assist, it should apply a five-part framework to guide the sequencing and content of support.

First, assess needs. Such parties tend to face the challenge of translating loose networks of actors into a single entity with finite views and an apparatus for mobilizing voters and delivering legislation. They can be limited in their internal party-specific organization or their ability to mobilize voters over time. However, each party has a unique development and organizational history that comes with distinct needs that can only be identified through close, consistent communication with various levels of the organization in country. 

Consultations, wherever possible led by in-country experts, should focus on determining the organizational form its leadership envisions the party taking, understanding that this may not always correspond to the party’s actual needs, and devising a plan for achieving an agreed-upon development plan derived from parties in comparable contexts.   

Second, help establish internal party decision-making processes and functioning party structures. Often, parties that win elections – and especially their leaders – do not understand the importance of structures that help develop back-bench talent over time. Without some at least rudimentary infrastructure, though, these parties often lie at the mercy of the next “pop-up” movement or party to emerge onto the scene and catch the public’s attention. 

Third, help build internal capacity to develop evidence-based policy alternatives that party leadership can transform into legislation. To thrive over time, parties need to invest in development of personnel and policy, either through internal policy offices and structured member and staff skills building, or via engaging outside entities to do this work. Parties that can develop compelling policies are better positioned to compete in the arena of ideas and therefore, when coupled with robust organizational structure, mobilize voters.   

Fourth, encourage new parties to interact with existing international party groupings like the International Democratic Union (IDU), Liberal International, or Socialist International. These entities provide a forum for leaders of older and newer parties to exchange policy ideas and innovations in organizational structure. Some international groupings also invest in newer partners to help develop their structure and capacity. At minimum, such fora provide a sounding board for nascent parties—once their initial organizational structure is in place—to test ideas and policies with proven parties that share aspects of their ideology. 

Finally, assistance providers should closely track the chosen party’s evolution. Too often, party assistance policy clings to antiquated ideas of what parties once were when it should focus on where they are going. Not all nascent parties will succeed. The U.S should know when to pull back, as there is no value to the American taxpayer in dumping assistance into failed causes. 

That political parties are unpopular across large swathes of the globe has become common knowledge. No matter. Parties still represent the most proven means for channeling citizens’ views into policy and meeting this population’s needs. Nascent parties committed to democratic principles aspiring to deliver for their citizens deserve U.S. support.

The views represented here are solely those of the authors.