Political Parties and Democracy

by Diamond, Larry; Gunther, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780801868634
• ISBN10: 0801868637
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-12-26
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

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.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Introduction	ix
Larry Diamond
Richard Gunther
I. Theoretical and Historical Perspectives
Types and Functions of Parties	3	(37)
Richard Gunther
Larry Diamond
The Rise of Parties in Western Democracies	40	(12)
Hans Daalder
The Americanization of the European Left	52	(15)
Seymour Martin Lipset
Parties Are Not What They Once Were	67	(23)
Philippe C. Schmitter
The Party Effects of Electoral Systems	90	(19)
Giovanni Sartori
II. Parties and Party Systems After Reform
The Three Phases of Italian Parties	109	(34)
Leonardo Morlino
Japan's ``1955 System'' and Beyond	143	(30)
Bradley Richardson
III. Developing and Postcommunist Systems
Political Darwinism in Latin America's Lost Decade	173	(33)
Michael Coppedge
Toward Moderate Pluralism: Political Parties in India	206	(32)
E. Sridharan
Ashutosh Varshney
The Institutional Decline of Parties in Turkey	238	(28)
Ergun Ozbudun
The Legacy of One-Party Hegemony in Taiwan	266	(33)
Yun-han Chu
Divergent Paths of Postcommunist Democracies	299	(28)
Herbert Kitschelt
IV. Conclusion
Challenges to Contemporary Political Parties	327	(18)
Stefano Bartolini
Peter Mair
Index	345