With the development of the cartel party, the goals of politics become self-referential, professional and technocratic, and what little inter-party competition remains becomes focused on the efficient and effective management of the polity.
The election campaigns that are conducted by cartel parties are capital-intensive, professionalized and centralized, and are organized on the basis of a strong reliance on the state for financial subventions and for other benefits and privileges.
Mass parties traditionally had little formal support from the government and were largely financed and organized from civil society.
To compensate for decline in popular support, parties have turned to larger and more expensive political campaigns.
Parties have turned to increasingly expensive forms of campaigning that rely on large amounts of public subsidies and outside political contributions.