AN INTEGRATED THEORY OF PARTY GOALS AND PARTY CHANGE

The authors present a theory that seeks to explain why parties change their political strategies, organizational characteristics and issue p ositions. Whereas most of the existing literature on party change deal s with party systems, the focus here is on individual parties. Whereas much of the literature views parties as responding more or less gradu ally to socioeconomic change, change is here regarded as a discontinuo us outcome of specific party decisions finked to party goals. This app roach is placed in the literature by reviewing extant theories of part y change. Our theory itself is initially advanced in a discursive sect ion which suggests that change does not 'just happen', but instead res ults from leadership change, a change of dominant faction within the p arty, and/or an external stimulus for change. The article then present s a more formal exposition of this theory, consisting of definitions, assumptions, and a series of testable propositions. It concludes with illustrative examples of this theoretical framework.