ABSTRACT
Although political parties provided the basis for the study of organizations for such pioneers as Michels (1944, first published 1915), Ostrogorski (1902), and Weber (1946, first published 1919), parties today stand outside the main stream of organization theory. Many of the concepts derived from such early studies have been important in the development of later theories, notably the “iron law of oligarchy” and the related observation of the transformation of goals. But it is remarkable how little the study of party organization per se, as distinct from the study of such a related phenomenon as electoral behavior, has developed beyond its state at the turn of the century. There are many reasons for this failure. Partly it is a result of scholarly specialization, now breaking down, which kept those most interested in organizations off the political preserve. In part, the failure has been due to a concern by students of parties with reform, which led to a search primarily for devices to make parties different. But most important has been the intractable character of the notion of party which has referred to instruments as different as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Prohibition Party of the United States.
