“[B]oth the SPD and the CDU mostly seek to consolidate their membership organisations. Both emphasise traditional membership recruitment and maintenance, combined with expansion of intra-democratic rights. However, both are also open to innovation by opening up their parties to non-partisans in order to adapt to societal change. The introduction of temporary membership could be seen as a move to consolidate the membership organisation. (…) The parties are warming up to more innovation, as there is no sign to the decline trend turning.” – Hilmar Langhelle Mjelde, How and Why Parties Respond to Membership Decline: The Case of the SPD and the CDU, German Politics, 2013, 22:3, 253-269
«É natural que alguns homens educados para a luta puramente política, as especulações demagógicas, as exaltações emocionais das massas populares, e por esse motivo propensos a reduzir a vida da Nação à agitação própria e das forças partidárias que lhes restam, não tenham revelado compreensão nem dado mostras de adaptar-se. Mas a Nação que faz livremente a vida que quer, a Nação viva e real, essa, comparando passado e presente, olha com certa desconfiança o zelo destes apóstolos da liberdade».