In this chapter, attention shifts from the structural conditions of cleavage structuring to the organizational and behavioral dimension. The central questions concern the relationship between organizational development and electoral mobilization; between corporate and political socialism; and between forms of interest representation and political representation. These themes are discussed along the two dimensions of organizational consolidation and membership mobilization. The former refers to the establishment and consolidation of specific political organizations into the corporate-group and the electoral-party channels, and to the linkage established between them; the latter refers to the capacity of the same organizations to mobilize individuals into such groups as trade union members, party members, and voters.

This perspective is important for three reasons. First, the levels and patterns of early organizational consolidation and structuring of the cleavage are instrumental in explaining levels and patterns of political mobilization. That is, organizational strength can be translated into both capacity for electoral mobilization and stability of electoral mobilization. Second, once a political organization achieves a certain amount of consolidation, it acquires relative autonomy from the environment, becomes an agent of mobilization of its own, and shapes its environment through ideological and organizational encapsulation and mobilization. In this sense, organization is a way of making the cleavage relatively independent of its socio-structural bases and of strengthening its own ideological and cultural distinctiveness at the same time. Finally, early organizational patterns and the relationship they establish between the party and the environment of corporate interests determine the latitude of action of the party's electoral strategies.