So, what should parties do after attracting and recruiting grass-roots members? Ideally, they should build on the resulting momentum and ensure that these members will be attached and active. However, deep involvement in party life depends on individuals’ aspirations, supported by party efforts at engaging them in meaningful participation. In Malang, the lack of effort by the parties to fully engage their members resulted in a tendency towards creating passive memberships, including people who joined a party just to obtain a membership card but had little knowledge of party organisation. Local party branches faced challenges creating and strengthening members’ attachments, particularly given the diverse motivations of their members and unresponsive membership management policies at the local level.

Motivation and Involvement in Political Parties

Scholars argue that members’ attachments to political parties are crucial for the success of those parties, mainly because of the influence of attachments on voting behaviour. Dalton & Wattenberg write that ‘longterm loyalty’ and ‘repeated experience with a preferred party’ determine a voter's choice; at the same time, party attachment gives the party a stable support base (Dalton & Wattenberg 2000: 21). Strong attachment is also usually manifested in a greater willingness of members to participate in party activities such as rallies. Affection for a political party usually translates to fondness for the political system as well (Dalton & Wattenberg 2000: 21). Thus, strong support for a party tends to mean strong support for the political system. Parties are greatly dependent on members’ attachments during elections. Burrell (1986: 49-50) argues that a party's vitality can be observed when members are more than just ‘nominally committed’, but truly involved in a party's efforts to win elections. Besides being a reliable source of votes, scholars argue, party members are relied on by parties to participate in party activities. Turnout for these activities helps create the impression that the parties are popular. Thus, parties greatly benefit from continuous member participation.

To create strong participation, parties have to tap into members’ motivations to join the party in the first place. Although research on motivation is complex, it is generally noted that members join parties to gain ‘influence, material favors, information, social benefits, or mental satisfaction’; they also stand to lose money, time, and alternative opportunities (Heidar 2006: 304).