Recent election success across the continent strikingly demonstrates the endurance of the extreme right in Europe. Piero Ignazi's volume provides the definitive account of this important political phenomenon. What is its significance? Why have such parties prospered in some countries and not others? Who votes for them and why? These are some of the questions that the book aims to answer during the course of its broad-ranging analysis.

Divided government occurs when the executive fails to enjoy majority support in at least one working house of the legislature. To date, the study of divided government has focused almost exclusively on the United States. However, divided government occurs much more widely. It occurs in other presidential systems. Moreover, it is also the equivalent of minority government in parliamentary regimes and cohabitation in French-style semi-presidential systems. This book examines the frequency, causes and management of divided government in comparative context, identifying the similarities and...

Several of the world's leading scholars present critical analyses (both conceptual and empirical) of important substantive themes on political parties in contemporary democracies. They critically re-examine the classic concepts and typologies that have guided research in this field over the past decades, and explore new challenges faced by parties today.

This is the most ambitious and comprehensive account of the institutions of democratic delegation in West European parliamentary democracies to date. It provides an unprecedented cross-national investigation of West European political institutions from 1945 until the present day, as well as situating modern parliamentary democracy in the context of changing political parties and the growing importance of the European Union.

Drawing on the expertise of an impressive team of internationally known specialists, the book engages systematically with the evidence to show that, while a degree of popular cynicism towards them is often chronic, though rarely acute, parties have adapted and survived as organizations, remodelling themselves to the needs of an era in which patterns of linkage and communication with social groups have been transformed.

For the first time in a single volume, leading social movement researchers map the full range of applications of network concepts and tools to their field of inquiry. They illustrate how networks affect individual contributions to collective action in both democratic and non-democratic organizations; how patterns of inter-organizational linkages affect the circulation of resources both within movement milieus and between movement organizations and the political system; how network concepts and techniques may improve our grasp of the relationship between movements and elites, of the...

The scope and intensity of the challenges currently faced by western European political parties is exceptionally large, threatening the viability of the manner in which they have traditionally operated and causing them to seek new behaviours and strategies. This volume brings together some of the foremost scholars of European party politics, whose evaluation of political parties in 'the new Europe' is organised under four broad headings: Parties as Corporate Actors; Parties and Society; Parties and the State and Parties Beyond the Nation State. Each contributor not only provides a concise,...

The popular pressures for reforms of the democratic process have mounted across the OECD nations over the past generation. In response, democratic institutions are changing, evolving, and expanding in ways that may alter the structure of the democratic process. These changes include reforms of the electoral process, the expansion of referendums, introduction of open government provisions, and more access points for direct political involvement. Indeed, some observers claim that we are witnessing the most fundamental transformation of the democratic process since the creation of mass democracy...

Based on data from new and established contemporary democracies across the globe, this leading team of experts examines how election losers and their supporters respond to their loss and how institutions shape losing. Losers' Consent shows how being able to accept losing is one of the central requirements of democracy, and provides a major new contribution to our understanding of political legitimacy, comparative political behaviour, and democratic stability.

How does representative democracy work in the modern age? Examining 21 post-war democracies, this strikingly innovative approach by two world-class scholars demonstrates how the voter in the middle--the median elector--empowers the centre party in parliament to translate political preferences into public policy.