ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the intraparty and constitutional contexts of the cases under investigation. The first section provides a classification of parties into ‘centralised’ and ‘decentralised’ organisations. Parties are classified according to the distribution of effective decision-making authority within the party over seven dimensions, namely policy development, execution of party line, candidate selection, leadership selection, funding allocation, party press, and discipline (including expulsion).1 The criteria for this classification is the number of individuals who play a role in political processes over these dimensions because these privileged individuals are in a position to influence priorities for the attainment of party goals. The more restricted the organisational privilege to participate in a given process, the more highly centralised is the party.
