Political Parties and Democracy

Erscheinungsjahr 2001
ISBN: 978-0-8018-6863-4
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 392 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 635 g

Reihe: A Journal of Democracy Book

Political parties are one of the core institutions of democracy. But in democracies around the world—rich and poor, Western and non-Western—there is growing evidence of low or declining public confidence in parties. In membership, organization, and popular involvement and commitment, political parties are not what they used to be. But are they in decline, or are they simply changing their forms and functions? In contrast to authors of most previous works on political parties, which tend to focus exclusively on long-established Western democracies, the contributors to this volume cover many regions of the world. Theoretically, they consider the essential functions that political parties perform in democracy and the different types of parties. Historically, they trace the emergence of parties in Western democracies and the transformation of party cleavage in recent decades. Empirically, they analyze the changing character of parties and party systems in postcommunist Europe, Latin America, and five individual countries that have witnessed significant change: Italy, Japan, Taiwan, India, and Turkey. As the authors show, political parties are now only one of many vehicles for the representation of interests, but they remain essential for recruiting leaders, structuring electoral choice, and organizing government. To the extent that parties are weak and discredited, the health of democracy will be seriously impaired.

Contributors: Larry Diamond and Richard Gunther • Hans Daalder • Philippe Schmitter • Seymour Martin Lipset • Giovanni Sartori • Bradley Richardson • Herbert Kitschelt • Michael Coppedge • Ergun Ozbudun • Yun-han Chu • Leonardo Morlino • Ashutosh Varshney and E. Sridharan • Stefano Bartolini and Peter Mair.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Diamond, Larry Jay

Diamond, Larry

Gunther, Richard

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Introduction, Larry Diamond and Richard Gunther
Part I. Theoretical and Historical Perspectives
Chapter 1. Types and Functions of Parties
Chapter 2. The Rise of Parties in Western Democracies
Chapter 3. The Americanization of the European Left
Chapter 4. Parties Are Not What They Once Were
Chapter 5. The Party Effects of Electoral Systems
Part II. Parties and Party Systems After Reform
Chapter 6. The Three Phases of Italian Parties
Chapter 7. Japan's "1955 System" and Beyond
Part III. Developing and Postcommunist Systems
Chapter 8. Political and Darwinism in Latin America's Lost Decade
Chapter 9. Toward Modern Pluralism: Political Parties in India
Chapter 10. The Institutional Decline of Parties in Turkey
Chapter 11. The Legacy of One-Party Hegemony in Taiwan
Chapter 12. Divergent Paths of Postcommunist Democracies
Part IV. Conclusion
Chapter 13. Challenges to Contemporary Political Parties
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Gunther, Richard
Richard Gunther is professor of political science at Ohio State University.

Diamond, Larry
Larry Diamond is coeditor of the Journal of Democracy, codirector of the International Forum for Democratic Studies, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Larry Diamond is a senior research fellow in the Hoover Institute of War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University. Richard Gunther is a professor of political science at Ohio State University.