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In the paper, I revisit how a modernisation- and individualisation-induced loss of trust, membership, and voters has been addressed in party research for a while. However, social theory authors such as Beck, Bauman, Sennett, and Taylor have pointed to further organisational dilemmas that have not been addressed in depth: a. That demands for flexibility, individualisation and non-bindingness and demands for centralized political leadership might go hand in hand; b. That notwithstanding increasing individualisation citizens might demand new forms of social collectives and belonging.

In this article we present a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) on 40 European states to disentangle the causal complexity of Istanbul Convention ratification decisions. We identify four pathways for ratification, driven by feminist egalitarian norms, international conditionality, pro-European governments at odds with social opposition, and societies unwilling to mobilize for conservative religious institutions. We unpack these causal patterns in four minimalist case studies.