Abstract
This article addresses the question: under what conditions do democracies ban political parties? It does so by testing three hypotheses generated by a disparate literature on party bans in a ‘most likely case’, namely, the proscription of radical Basque nationalist parties Herri Batasuna, Euskal Herritarrok and Batasuna in 2003. These parties were banned for their integration in a terrorist network led by Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA). The hypotheses are that democracies ban anti-system parties if (i) anti-system parties do not unambiguously eschew violence; (ii) alternatives to proscription are not effective; and (iii) relevant office holders have reason to believe they will not be disadvantaged in their pursuit of office or votes for supporting the ban. Case study findings confirm the hypotheses other than that on violence, given that ETA’s political wing escaped proscription for around two decades before it was banned. Explaining this finding – or addressing the question of why the parties were not banned until 2003 – the article develops two further hypotheses, namely, that democracies ban anti-system parties if (iv) the parties have been ‘securitized’ as an existential threat to the state or democratic community and (v) proscription is the preference of all veto players.
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Notes
Amaiur (and Bildu) are not, strictly speaking, successor parties to Herri Batasuna. Candidates from Basque parties with strong democratic credentials stood alongside independents with strong links to the radical Basque nationalist left. In the 2011 general election, Amaiur won seven seats (out of 350 seats) and 333 628 votes.
Boletín Oficial del Estado, Serie D, 164, 22 March 1988, 8998.
Barómetro 2454, April 16 2002.
Barómetro 2466, 24 September 2002.
Party support questions ‘Could you tell me which party or coalition you voted for in the March 2000 general elections?’ (CIS); ‘Which party did you vote for in [the last] election?’ (ESS).
Diario de Sesiones (DS) Congreso, 67, 16 May 1978, pp. 2368–2370; DS Senado, 41, 22 August 1978, pp. 1690–1693.
DS Congreso, 94, 21 June 1978, pp. 3537–3544.
DS Congreso, 219, 17 February 1988, pp. 7986–7989; DS Congreso, 94, 16 March 1988, pp. 5887–5944.
DS Congreso, 164, 23 May 2002, pp. 2899–8327.
Barómetro 2454, 16 April 2002.
Barómetro 2466, 24 September 2002.
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Bourne, A. Why ban Batasuna? Terrorism, political parties and democracy. Comp Eur Polit 13, 325–344 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2013.28
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/cep.2013.28