Mass party membership collapsed across Europe in the 1980s-2000s

Evidence

At its postwar peak, the PCI boasted more than 362 million members; by 1990, that number had fallen by almost half—soon after, it was subsumed into the Partito Democratico. In the UK, Labour Party membership declined steadily from over 1 million in 1953 until 1980, when it plunged sharply, falling below 200,000 for the first time in 2006. The Dutch Partij van de Arbeid had 147,000 members in 1959; by the 2000s, only 6,000 remained. Between 1976 and 2005, the German SPD shrank from 1 million members to 572,000, as the average age of party members rose. — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 128

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Center-left parties lost their social bases and legitimacy, creating the vacuum populism filled. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 28; The 2008 crash accelerated a decades-long hollowing out of party democracy — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 98; British Conservative Party membership has decayed to a geriatric remnant — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 138