Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This insightful Advanced Introduction provides an overview of the organisation, regulation and structure of political parties today. Richard S. Katz discusses the essential role that political parties play in modern democracies, with politics taking place within and among parties. Analysing the significant diversity found between parties, Katz illustrates the profound impact that the legal definition and organisation of parties can have on a democratic system. Key Features: Reviews how and why parties have been regulated Explores the scholarly and legal definitions of parties Focuses on government formation and party government Analyses the historical development of forms of parties and party coalitions Examines intra-party politics alongside inter-party cooperation and competition This Advanced Introduction will be essential reading for students and scholars in political science, public policy, leadership, and international politics. It will also be a useful guide for practitioners seeking to better understand the position of parties in a democratic system.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This insightful Advanced Introduction provides an overview of the organisation, regulation and structure of political parties today. Richard S. Katz discusses the essential role that political parties play in modern democracies, with politics taking place within and among parties. Analysing the significant diversity found between parties, Katz illustrates the profound impact that the legal definition and organisation of parties can have on a democratic system. Key Features: Reviews how and why parties have been regulated Explores the scholarly and legal definitions of parties Focuses on government formation and party government Analyses the historical development of forms of parties and party coalitions Examines intra-party politics alongside inter-party cooperation and competition This Advanced Introduction will be essential reading for students and scholars in political science, public policy, leadership, and international politics. It will also be a useful guide for practitioners seeking to better understand the position of parties in a democratic system.

Following the major upheavals of 1993, the Italian political system suffered intense aftershocks tied to the renewal of the political class in 1994. There were shattering changes in the party system?in particular the birth of Berlusconi's Forza Italia?and the first majoritarian parliament was established. In this latest edition of Italian Politics

Following the major upheavals of 1993, the Italian political system suffered intense aftershocks tied to the renewal of the political class in 1994. There were shattering changes in the party system--in particular the birth of Berlusconi's Forza Italia--and the first majoritarian parliament was established. In this latest edition of "Italian Politics" all the crucial issues that defined Italian political and social life during 1994 are discussed and interpreted by renowned scholars from Italy, the United States, and Britain, who provide an indispensable guide for understanding Italy's transformation.

The implications of the personalization of politics are necessarily widespread and can be found across many different aspects of contemporary democracies. Personalization should influence the way campaigns are waged, how voters determine their preferences, how officials (e.g., MPs) and institutions (e.g., legislatures and governments) function, and the place and operations of political parties in democratic life. However, in an effort to quantify the precise degree of personalization over time and to uncover the various causes of personalization, the existing literature has paid little attention to many of the important questions regarding the consequences of personalization. While the chapters throughout this volume certainly document the extent of personalization, they also seek to address some fundamental questions about the nature of personalization, how it is manifested, and its consequences for political parties, governance, representation, and the state of democracy more generally. Indeed, one of the primary objectives of this volume is to speak to a very broad audience about the implications of personalization. Those interested in election campaigns, voting, gender, governance, legislative behaviour, and political parties will all find something of value in the contributions that follow.

Political parties and elections are the mainsprings of modern democracy. In this classic volume, Richard S. Katz explores the problem of how a given electoral system affects the role of political parties and the way in which party members are elected. He develops and tests a theory of the differences in the cohesion, ideological behavior, and issue orientation of Western parliamentary parties on the basis of the electoral systems under which they compete. A standard in the field of political theory and thought, "The Theory of Parties and the Electoral System" contributes to a better understanding of parliamentary party structures and demonstrates the wide utility of the rationalistic approach for explaining behavior derived from the self-interest of political actors.

Political parties have long been recognized as essential institutions of democratic governance. Both the organization of parties, and their relationships with citizens, the state, and each other have evolved since the rise of liberal democracy in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Going into the 21st century, it appears that parties losing popular support, putting both parties, and potentially democracy, in peril. This book traces the evolution of parties from the model of the mass party, through the catch-all party model, to argue that by the late 20th century the principal governing parties and (and their allied smaller parties - collectively the political 'mainstream') were effectively forming a cartel, in which the form of competition might remain, and indeed even appear to intensify, while its substance was increasingly hollowed out. The spoils of office were increasingly shared rather than restricted to the temporary winners; contentious policy questions were kept off the political agenda, and competition shifted from large questions of policy to minor questions of managerial competence. To support this cartel, the internal arrangements of parties changed to privilege the party in public office over the party on the ground. The unintended consequence has been to stimulate the rise of extra-cartel challengers to these cozy arrangements in the form of anti-party-system parties and populist oppositions on the left, but especially on the right. Comparative Politics is a series for researchers, teachers, and students of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: www.ecprnet.eu. The series is edited by Emilie van Haute, Professor of Political Science, Universite libre de Bruxelles; Ferdinand Muller-Rommel, Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Leuphana University; and Susan Scarrow, John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Political Science, University of Houston.

The implications of the personalization of politics are necessarily widespread and can be found across many different aspects of contemporary democracies. Personalization should influence the way campaigns are waged, how voters determine their preferences, how officials (e.g., MPs) and institutions (e.g., legislatures and governments) function, and the place and operations of political parties in democratic life. However, in an effort to quantify the precise degree of personalization over time and to uncover the various causes of personalization, the existing literature has paid little attention to many of the important questions regarding the consequences of personalization. While the chapters throughout this volume certainly document the extent of personalization, they also seek to address some fundamental questions about the nature of personalization, how it is manifested, and its consequences for political parties, governance, representation, and the state of democracy more generally. Indeed, one of the primary objectives of this volume is to speak to a very broad audience about the implications of personalization. Those interested in election campaigns, voting, gender, governance, legislative behaviour, and political parties will all find something of value in the contributions that follow.

This book helps students to understand American politics by guiding them through the different institutions of American government. It covers the electoral and party systems, the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, and the division of powers between the federal government and the states. It also explores the internal organization of each institution. This book gives students a solid understanding of the 'rules' of the American political game, the 'pitch' on which the game is played, and the basic characteristics and orientations of the 'teams' that are playing the game. It enables students to study contemporary American politics with greater understanding, and to see the differences between the government of the United States and the governments of other democracies.

This book takes a close look inside political parties, bringing together the findings of an international team of leading scholars. Building on a unique set of cross-national data on party organizations, the contributors set out to explain how parties organize, how they have changed and how they have adapted to the changing political and organizational circumstances in which they find themselves. The contributors are recognized authorities on the party systems of their countries, and have all been involved in gathering data on party membership, party finance and the internal structure of power. They add to the analysis of these original data an expert knowledge of the wider political patterns in their countries, and thus provide insight into the development of parties and party systems from the perspective of party organizations themselves. How Parties Organize offers the most systematic and comparable analysis of party organization in contemporary Europe and the United States.

'This thoughtful and wide-ranging review of parties and party research contains contributions from many of the foremost party scholars and is a must for all library shelves' - Richard Luther, Keele University 'The study of political parties has never been livelier and this genuinely international Handbook - theoretically rich, comparatively informed, and focused on important questions - defines the field. This volume is both an indispensable summary of what we know and the starting point for future research' - R K Carty, University of British Columbia 'Political parties are ubiquitous, but their forms and functions vary greatly from regime to regime, from continent to continent, and from era to era. The Handbook of Party Politics captures this variation and richness in impressive ways. The editors have assembled an excellent team, and the scope of the volume is vast and intriguing' - Kaare Strom, University of California, San Diego Political parties are indispensable to democracy and a central subject of research and study in political science around the world. This major new handbook is the first to comprehensively map the state-of-the-art in contemporary party politics scholarship. The Handbook is designed to: - provide an invaluable survey of the major theories and approaches in this dynamic area of study and research - give students and researchers a concise 'road map' to the core literatures in all the sub-fields of party related theorizing and research - identify the theories, approaches and topics that define the current 'cutting edge' of the field. The Handbook is comparative in overall approach but also addresses some topics to be addressed in nationally or regionally specific ways. The resulting collaboration has brought together the world's leading party theorists to provide an unrivalled resource on the role of parties in the pressing contemporary problems of institutional design and democratic governance today.

This book addresses the relationship between four values of democratic theory--popular sovereignty, liberalism, personal development, and community--and the electoral institutions used to implement them. After a chapter sketching the electoral institutions of Athens, the Roman Republic, the medieval church, and pre-reform Britain, the book examines what role elections are expected to play in a variety of democratic theories. The major theme of this section is that the four values are largely incompatible; therefore, different choices must be made between them. Part II addresses the empirical consequences of electoral institutions by examining electoral systems worldwide with the objective of finding the institutions most appropriate to each model of democracy. This impressive study provides empirical information on more electoral institutions in more countries than has ever been available in one volume before.