Following the E.U. 2024 election,
political parties jostled for members in the Parliament. Whereas the political
duopoly of parties in the U.S. House of Representatives severely limits such
skipping around, the European analogue puts more of an emphasis on party
management in terms of weighing ideological or policy “purity” against the
power that comes from size. In contrast, the two major parties in the U.S. must
be content to be “big tents,” each of which contains groups. From the
standpoint of the parties in the E.U. Parliament, the groups are at the state
level. The defection of Andrej Babis and the rest of his group from the Renew
Europe party just weeks after the E.U. election in June, 2024 demonstrates the
distinct balancing task of the E.U. parties. Such balancing is not something
that the American political duopoly of parties need do. I contend that the
Americans could benefit by looking at the European case in this regard.
The full essay is at "Political Parties in the E.U."
