Parties and Democracy: Coalition Formation and Government Functioning in Twenty States (Comparative European Politics) - Hardcover

Budge, Ian; Keman, Hans

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198277520 ISBN 13: 9780198277521

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1990

Synopsis

Political parties are the central institution through which mass representative democracies now work. They alone present voters with coherent policy alternatives in elections and effect them in government if elected. If we justify democracy in terms of its production of governments which are uniquely sensitive and responsive to popular preferences, it is through the political parties that it operates and from them that the special characteristics of the system derive How exactly do parties operate in government? There is much uncertainty about this, even on such basic questions as how coalition governments form in the first place and on what criteria they distribute government ministries among their members. Nor is it clear how parties influence government policy; or whether governments eventually break down because of disagreements on policy or for tactical or electoral reasons. "Parties and Democracy" gives clear answers to these questions by looking at the actual behaviour of some 500 governments in 20 post-war democracies. Their conclusion that parties do function in accordance with modern democratic theory will serve to put moral justifications of democracy and descriptions of the system on a firmer footing.

About this title

Product Description:

/ / Political history / Engels / English / Anglais / Englisch / hard cover / dust jacket / 14 x 22 cm / 243 .pp /

Review:

promises to be one of the most significant books on government formation and performance to appear in several years (West European Politics)

a very worthwhile and timely analysis (Political Studies)

Budge and Keman amass a formidable amount of evidence in support of their thesis that policy is the major determining factor in the creation and sustenance of coalition governments. (Times Literary Supplement)

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0198277520
• ISBN 13: 9780198277521
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 258