Oligarchie, Demokratie, Anarchie – Drei Idealmodelle vormärzlicher Parteiorganisation

How were political parties in the political philosophy of the German pre-March (“Vormärz”) 1815 till 1848 perceived? A revision of some long-standing prejudices in favor of a more benign view on the pre-March concept of political parties is necessary . In fact a modern and elaborate theory and sociology of political parties is already to be found at the eve of the 1848 German revolution . Although among the relevant academic literature, early German party theorists in general were accused of having interpreted parties first and foremost as loose associations of ideologically like-minded persons (“Gesinnungsgemeinschaften”) being unable or unwilling to tolerate real political groups . In fact an understanding of parties as political organization competing for power already was a central element of the pre-March concept of party . The general insight into the organizational character of political parties has led the theorists, in a second step of analysis, to deal more closely with the preferred model of party organization . If the ideas of the internal structure of parties, which were circulating at the time, were to be bundled together, one can already speak of three ideal models of party organization: oligarchy, democracy and anarchy . The findings are based on a broad analysis of more than 250 contemporary German text sources originating from 1815 to 1848 .