Comparative Parties and Party Systems

Government 657

 

Spring 1998

Scott Mainwaring

205 Hesburgh Center

631-6580; 631-8530

mainwaring.1@nd.edu

 

This course will focus on comparative parties and party systems.  The major purpose is to acquaint you with some of the most important theoretical and comparative literature on one of the major themes in political science.  The course will draw on readings on Western Europe, East Central Europe, Latin America, and the United States, but the issues covered are relevant to other regions of the world as well.  I am more concerned about raising comparative and theoretical issues than about how much you learn about specific parties or party systems.   

 

The course has three main units.   We will begin with some general reflections on why parties matter. In Part I, we will also examine the literature on the decline of parties and the rise of other vehicles of representation.

 

In Part II, we will discuss three leading theoretical approaches to the analysis of why different party systems emerge in different nations.  In particular, we will discuss authors who emphasize social cleavages, voters’ preferences (the spatial model), and electoral systems as factors shaping party systems.  We will conclude Part II with a discussion of comparing and classifying party systems.  This will be the longest part of the course. 

 

The third part of the course focuses on parties rather than party systems as the unit of analysis.  A fundamental question is the way parties function internally.  To what extent can parties be seen as rational actors as opposed to organizations with logics that may not follow the normal dictates of rationality?  More broadly, what shapes how parties compete and function? 

 

Requirements and Grading.  A major part of the course will be doing the reading, coming to class well prepared, and contributing to class discussions.  Because I value the collective aspects of the learning process, class contributions will be an important part of your grade.   

 

During the semester, you will write one paper (10 pages), a take home midterm (10 pages), and a take home final (also 10 pages).  Each written assignment will constitute 25% of your grade.  Class contributions will account for the remaining 25%.  You may rewrite your midterm or your paper and resubmit it by the last day of classes (April 29). 

 

The paper may be a short research exercise on a subject chosen in consultation with me, or it may be a critical analysis of the readings for a particular week.  If you choose a research paper, it is due by April 22nd to ensure that I have time to read it and provide feedback so that you can revise.  If you choose the latter option, it is due the Sunday before class by 6:00 p.m. so that everyone has time to read it.  Please distribute it electronically. 

 

You may undertake one of your writing assignments with another person from the class.

 

Office Hours.

Thursday, 2:00-3:45 205 Hesburgh Center

 

If this time is not convenient, I would be happy to arrange for an alternative time.  Don’t hesitate!  Also feel free to contact me via e-mail or phone.  I usually check my e-mail at least once a day except on the weekends.   

 

Longer Research options.  I am willing to arrange different course requirements for second or third year students who want to write a lengthy research paper this semester. If you want to submit a lengthy research paper instead of the three shorter assignments, you must discuss this issue with me no later than the end of January.

 

I encourage those of you who are particularly interested in the issues covered in this course to consider it as part of a two semester sequence, the second part of which would be devoted to independent research projects.

 

Required and recommended reading. I do not expect you to do the recommended reading as a matter of course, but you should look at some of it for subjects on which you are writing a paper. 

 

Purchasing course materials.  The following books should be available at the ND Bookstore:

Lijphart, Electoral Systems and Party Systems

Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy

 

Some of the other books (Katz and Sartori in particular) are unfortunately out of print. 

 

I have also assembled a course packet for most of the articles in this course.  This packet can be purchased at The Copy Shop in LaFortune Student Center.

 

January 19.  No readings.  Short meeting to introduce the themes of the course. 

 

Part I: Parties, Party Systems, and Contemporary Democracy

In this part of the course, we will examine the role of parties in contemporary democracies.

 

January 26.  Why Parties and Party Systems Matter: The Analysis in Old Democracies

 

Giovanni Sartori, Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 56-67, 117-201.  

 

Giacomo Sani and Giovanni Sartori, "Polarization, Fragmentation and Competition in Western Democracies," pp. 307-340 in Daalder and Mair, eds., Western European Party Systems.

 

Arend Lijphart, Democracies: Patterns of Majoritarian and Consensus Government in Twenty-One Countries (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), pp. 106-126.

 

G. Bingham Powell, Contemporary Democracies: Participation, Stability, and Violence (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), pp. 74-110.

 

Recommended: Some classics in democratic theory discuss parties and their role in contemporary liberal democracy.  Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (New York: Harper and Row, 1942), pp. 235-302.; Robert Dahl, After the Revolution, 2nd edition (New Haven: Yale University Press: 1990), pp. 1-80, 116-135; Giovanni Sartori, The Theory of Democracy Revisited (Chatham, NJ: Chatham House, 1987), pp. 21-35, 278-287; Alan Ware, Citizens, Parties, and the State (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987), pp. 1-29.

 

For a critique of Sartori’s notion of polarized pluralism as applied to Italy, see Ivo H. Daalder, "The Italian Political System in Transition: The End of Polarized Pluralism?,"West European Politics Vol. 6 No. 3 (July 1983), pp. 216-236.

 

Dankwart Rustow, The Politics of Compromise (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955), is an excellent study of democratic consolidation in Sweden, emphasizing the role of parties and political elites.

 

John Aldrich, Why Parties? (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995). 

 

February 2. Why Parties and Party Systems Matter: New Democracies

 

Scott Mainwaring and Timothy Scully, "Party Systems in Latin America," in Mainwaring and Scully, eds., Building Democratic Institutions: Parties and Party Systems in Latin America (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), pp. 1-34.

 

Scott Mainwaring, Rethinking Party Systems in the Third Wave of Democratization: The Case of Brazil (Stanford: Stanford University Press, forthcoming), Chapters 1, 2. and 11.   

 

Gábor Tóka, “Political Parties and Democratic Consolidation in East Central Europe.”  University of Strathclyde, Centre for the Study of Public Policy, Working Paper #279.

 

Guillermo O'Donnell, "Delegative Democracy" Journal of Democracy Vol. 5 No. 1 (January 1994), pp. 55-69.   Although it does not specifically discuss parties, this essay addresses the consequences of weak democratic institutions. 

 

Geoffrey Pridham, "Southern European Democracies on the Road to Consolidation: A Comparative Assessment of the Role of Political Parties," in Pridham, ed., Securing Democracy: Political Parties and Democratic Consolidation in Southern Europe (New York: Routledge, 1990), pp. 1-41.

 

Recommended: Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), pp. 1-32, 78-92, 397-433.

 

On the effects of weak democratic institutions, also see Valerie Bunce and Mária Csanádi, "Uncertainty in the Transition: Post-Communism in Hungary," East European Politics and Societies Vol. 7 No. 2 (Spring 1993), pp. 240-275. 

 

Daniel H. Levine, Conflict and Political Change in Venezuela (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973) is an excellent study of how parties and political elites shaped democratic politics in Venezuela.  For an update of this classic contribution, see Miriam Kornblith and Daniel H. Levine, "Venezuela: The Life and Times of the Party System," in Scott Mainwaring and Timothy R. Scully, eds., Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), pp. 37-71.  Also see Michael Coppedge, Strong Parties and Lame Ducks: Presidential Partyarchy and Factionalism in Venezuela (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994). 

 

Arturo Valenzuela, The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes: Chile (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), emphasizes the reverse side of the coin of Levine's study: how parties and political elites contributed to the breakdown of democracy in 1973.  In a similar vein, those who read Portuguese might consult Wanderley Guilherme dos Santos, Sessenta e Quatro: Anatomia da Crise (São Paulo: Vértice, 1986).

 

 

Part II: Approaches to the Study of Party System Formation

If parties and party systems structure important outcomes in democratic politics, then we need to know how and why party systems form as they do.  We will consider three main theories: social cleavage theory, spatial theory, and electoral laws. 

 

February 9.  Theoretical Approach I: Social Cleavages and Party Systems in Advanced Industrial Democracies

 

Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan, "Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and Voter Alignments: An Introduction," pp. 1-64 in Lipset and Rokkan, eds., Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives (New York: Free Press, 1967).

 

Giovanni Sartori, "From the Sociology of Politics to Political Sociology," pp. 65-95 in Seymour Martin Lipset, ed., Politics and the Social Sciences (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1969).

 

Adam Przeworski and John Sprague, "Party Strategy, Class Organization, and Individual Voting," in Przeworski, Capitalism and Social Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp. 99-129.

 

Ronald Inglehart, "The Changing Structure of Political Cleavages in Western Society," in Russell J. Dalton, Scott C. Flanagan, and Paul Allen Beck, eds., Electoral Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies: Realignment or Dealignment? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), pp. 25-69. 

 

Oddbjorn Knutsen, "Cleavage Dimensions in the West European Countries: A Comparative Empirical Analysis," Comparative Political Studies Vol. 21 (January 1989), pp. 495-534. 

 

Recommended: Alan Zuckerman, "Political Cleavage: A Conceptual and Theoretical Analysis," British Journal of Political Science Vol. 5 No. 2 (1975), pp. 231-248. 

 

Arend Lijphart, Democracies: Patterns of Majoritarian and Consensus Government in Twenty-One Countries (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), Ch. 8. 

 

February 16. Theoretical Approach I: Social Cleavages and Party Systems in Western Europe

 

Mark Franklin, Tom Mackie, Henry Valen et al., Electoral Change: Responses to Evolving Social and Attitudinal Structures in Western Countries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 3-57, 383-436. 

 

Ronald Inglehart, Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Democracy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), pp. 66-129. 

 

Recommended: Stefano Bartolini and Peter Mair, Identity, Competition and Electoral Availability: The Stabilisation of European Electorates, 1885-1985 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).  Bartolini and Mair argue that the social cleavage approach is still powerful.  

 

Richard Rose and Derek Urwin, "Social Cohesion, Political Parties and Strains in Regimes," Comparative Political Studies Vol. 2 No. 1 (April 1969), pp. 7-67.

 

One of the interesting issues addressed by Lipset and Rokkan is that of stability of party systems and electoral patterns.  For contributions that modify their claims, see Mogens N. Pedersen, "Changing Patterns of Electoral Volatility in European Party Systems, 1948-1977," in Hans Daalder and Peter Mair, eds., Western European Party Systems: Continuity and Change (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1983), pp. 29-66; Maria Maguire, "Is There Still Persistence?  Electoral Change in Western Europe," in Hans Daalder and Peter Mair, eds., Western European Party Systems: Continuity and Change (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1983), pp. 67-94; Michael Shamir, "Are Western Party Systems 'Frozen?' A Comparative Dynamic Analysis," Comparative Political Studies Vol. 17 No. 1 (April), pp. 35-79.  An earlier examination of these problems was Richard Rose and Derek Unwin, "Persistence and Change in Western Party Systems since 1945," Political Studies Vol. 18 (1970), pp. 288-313.     

 

February 23. Theoretical Approach I: Cleavages and Party Systems in Latin America and East Central Europe

 

How applicable is cleavage theory to understanding party systems outside the advanced industrial democracies? 

 

Timothy R. Scully, Rethinking the Center: Party Politics in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Chile, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), pp. 1-19, 171-186.

 

Timothy R. Scully, "Reconstituting Party Politics in Chile," in Scott Mainwaring and Timothy R. Scully, eds., Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995), pp. 100-137.

 

Robert H. Dix, "Cleavage Structures and Party Systems in Latin America," Comparative Politics Vol. 22 No. 1 (October 1989), pp. 23-37. 

 

Richard Rose, “Mobilizing Demobilized Voters in Post Communist Societies,” Instituto Juan March de Estudios e Investigaciones, Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Ciencias Sociales, Working Paper 1995/76 (September 1995). 

 

Recommended: David Collier and Ruth Berins Collier, Shaping the Political Arena (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991). 

 

March 2. Theoretical Approach I: Cleavages and Party Systems in Central Europe

 

The social cleavage model assumes programmatic linkages between voters and parties.  But the readings on East Central Europe suggest the possibility of more personalistic or clientelistic linkages. 

 

Herbert Kitschelt et al.,

 

Geoffrey Evans and Stephen Whitefield, “Identifying the Bases of Party Competition in Eastern Europe,” British Journal of Political Science 23 (1993): 521-548. 

 

Recommended: Herbert Kitschelt, "The Formation of Party Systems in East Central Europe," Politics and Society Vol. 20, No. 1 (March 1992), pp. 7-50. 

 

March 9.  Midterm exam due.  No class.

 

March 23.  Theoretical Approach II: Spatial Approaches to Party Competition

 

As far as I can tell, the spatial theory of party competition does not purport to explain why party systems acquire different configurations in different countries, but it does provide an alternative to social cleavage approaches to understanding party competition.

 

Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy, (New York: Harper and Row, 1957), pp. 3-163, 279-300.

 

Donald Stokes, "Spatial Models of Party Competition," American Political Science Review Vol. 57 No. 2 (June 1963), pp. 368-377.   

 

John Ferejohn, "The Spatial Model and Elections," in Bernard Grofman, ed., Information, Participation, and Choice (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1993).

 

March 30.  Spatial Approaches to Party Competition, Continued

 

Kenneth A. Shepsle and Ronald N. Cohen, “Multiparty Competition, Entry, and Entry Deterrence in Spatial Models of Elections,” pp. 12-45 in James Enelow and Melvin J. Hinich, eds., Advances in the Spatial Theory of Voting (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). 

 

Ian Budge and Dennis Farlie, "Party Competition--Selective Emphasis or Direct Confrontation?  An Alternative View with Data," in Hans Daalder and Peter Mair, eds., Western European Party Systems: Continuity and Change (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1983), pp. 267-305.  Do parties compete directly over the same issues, as Downs seems to imply, or do they selectively emphasize issues?  

 

Donald Green and Ian Shapiro, Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), pp. 147-178. 

 

George Rabinowitz, Stuart Elaine MacDonald, and Ola Listhaug, “New Players in an old Game: Party Strategy in Multiparty Systems,” Comparative Political Studies 24 (July 1991) No. 2: 147-185. 

 

Anders Westholm, “Distance Versus Direction: The Illusory Defeat of the Proximity Theory of Electoral Choice,” APSR 91 No. 4 (December 1997): 865-883. 

 

Recommended: Sartori, Parties and Party Systems, Ch. 10. 

 

Brian Barry,

 

A large literature on party behavior in rational choice and/or formal modeling has been spawned from Downs.  For one interesting example, see Michael Laver, "Party Competition and Party System Change," Journal of Theoretical Politics Vol. 1 No. 3 (July 1989), pp. 301-324.

 

One of the great debates that Downs addresses is the extent to which voters are rational actors.  There is a vast literature on this subject.  For a perspective that diverges markedly from Downs, see Alessandro Pizzorno, "On the Rationality of Democratic Choice," Telos #64 (Spring 1985), pp. 41-69.  Downs assumes voters to be rational in specified ways; Pizzorno questions this assumption.  So does Brian Barry, Sociologists, Economists & Democracy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), Ch. 2.  But a rich body of literature furthers Downs's claim that voters are rational.  For example, see John A. Ferejohn and Morris P. Fiorina, "The Paradox of Not Voting: A Decision Theoretic Analysis," American Political Science Review  Vol. 68 No. 2 (June 1974), pp. 525-536.  For an empirical grounding on the rationality of voters, see, inter alia, Ronald Inglehart, "Aggregate Stability and Individual-level Flux in Mass Belief Systems: The Level of Analysis Paradox," American Political Science Review Vol. 79 No. 1 (March 1985), pp. 97-116.

 

April 6.  Theoretical Approach III: Electoral Systems and Party Systems

 

Arend Lijphart, Electoral Systems and Party Systems: A Study of Twenty-Seven Democracies, 1945-1990 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), entire. 

 

Giovanni Sartori, "The Influence of Electoral Systems: Faulty Laws or Faulty Method?," pp. 43-68 in Bernard Grofman and Arend Lijphart, eds., Electoral Laws and Their Political Consequences (New York: Agathon, 1986).

 

Stein Rokkan, "Electoral Systems."  International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences Vol. 5 (New York: Macmillan/Free Press, 1968), pp. 6-21.

 

Matthew S. Shugart and John M. Carey, Presidents and Assemblies: Constitutional Design and Electoral Dynamics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp.226-258.

 

Recommended: William H. Riker, "Duverger's Law Revisited," pp. 19-42 in Grofman and Lijphart, eds., Electoral Laws and Their Political Consequences.  

 

Rein Taagepera and Matthew Soberg Shugart, Seats and Votes: The Effects and Determinants of Electoral Systems (New Haven: Yale University Press).

 

Arend Lijphart, "The Political Consequences of Electoral Laws, 1945-85," American Political Science Review Vol. 84 No. 2 (June 1990), pp. 481-496.

 

Giovanni Sartori, Comparative Constitutional Engineering: An Inquiry into Structures, Incentives, and Outcomes (New York: New York University Press, 1994), esp. pp. 3-79. 

 

April 13.  No class.

 

Part III: Parties and Party Organizations. 

In this final part of the course, the unit of analysis shifts from party systems to parties.  The fundamental question is why parties behave and organize in different ways.

 

April 20.  Parties as Rational Actors?  Electoral Systems and Parties

 

Richard Katz, A Theory of Parties and Electoral Systems (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980), pp. 1-123.

 

Mathew D. McCubbins and Frances Rosenbluth, "Party Provision for Personal Votes: Dividing the Vote in Japan,” pp. 35-55 in Peter F. Cowhey and Mathew D. McCubbins, eds., Structure and Policy in Japan and the United States (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). 

 

Donald Wittman, "Parties as Utility Maximizers," American Political Science Review Vol. 67 No. 2 (June 1973), pp. 490-498.

 

Kaare Strom, "A Behavioral Theory of Competitive Political Parties," American Journal of Political Science Vol. 34 No. 2 (May 1990), pp. 565-598.

 

Recommended: Scott Mainwaring, "Politicians, Parties, and Electoral Systems: Brazil in Comparative Perspective," Comparative Politics Vol. 24 No. 1 (October 1991), pp. 21-43.

 

John M. Carey and Matthew S. Shugart, “Incentives to Cultivate a Personal Vote: A Rank Ordering of Electoral Formulas,” Electoral Studies 14 No. 4 (1995): 417-439.  

 

Gary W. Cox, The Efficient Secret: The Cabinet and the Development of Political Parties in Victorian England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).  

 

Kaare Strom, Minority Government and Majority Rule (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), esp. pp. 1-9, 23-55.  Interesting discussion of the motivations of party leaders in terms of their objectives: office seeking versus policy considerations. 

 

April 27.  Party Organizations

 

Angelo Panebianco, Political Parties: Organization and Power (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. xi-xviii, 1-20.

 

Herbert Kitschelt, The Logics of Party Formation (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989), pp. 1-74.

 

Herbert Kitschelt, The Transformation of European Social Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 1-7, 207-253. 

 

Joseph A. Schlesinger, "On the Theory of Party Organization," Journal of Politics Vol. 46 No. 2 (May 1984), pp. 369-400.  A Downsian approach to party organization.

 

Michael Coppedge, Stanford University Press, 1994.    

 

Recommended: Alvin Gouldner, "Organizational Analysis," in Thomas Merton, et al., eds., Sociology Today: Problems and Prospects (New York, 1959), pp. 400-420.  Gouldner does not discuss parties, but he provides an excellent general statement of two major approaches to the study of organizations: organizations as rational actors, and organizations as systems with internal needs that might impede rationality from the perspective of goal maximizing.  In a similar vein, see R. Scott, Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1981).        

 

Susan E. Scarrow, Parties and Their Members: Organizing for Victory in Britain and Germany.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996. 

 

Herbert Kitschelt, "The Internal Politics of Parties: The Law of Curvilinear Disparity Revisited," Political Studies Vol. 37 No. 3 (September 1989), pp. 400-421. 

 

William E. Wright, "Comparative Party Models: Rational-Efficient and Party Democracy," in William E. Wright, ed., A Comparative Study of Party Organization (Columbus, Ohio: Merrill, 1971), pp. 17-54.   

 

Serenella Sferza, "The Diminishing Returns of Dominant Models and the Shifting Advantages of Organizational Forms," Paper for the Symposium on Political Parties: Changing Roles in Contemporary Societies, Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Ciencias Sociales, Instituto Juan March, Madrid, December 15-17, 1994. 

 

Robert Michels, Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern Democracy (New York: The Free Press, 1962). 

 

Other Subjects on Parties

The literature on parties is vast and rich.  I deliberately excluded some important themes from the course, including some that I have covered on past occasions.    

 

The Origins of Modern Parties

 

Richard Hofstadter, The Idea of a Party System (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969). 

 

Giovanni Sartori, Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 1-29.

 

Maurice Duverger, Political Parties (London: Methuen, 1954), pp. xxiii-xxxvii.  (For those using a different edition, this is the Introduction. 

 

J. Samuel Valenzuela, Democratización via reforma: La expansión del sufragio en Chile (Buenos Aires: Ediciones del IDES, 1985), pp. 35-49.

 

William N. Chambers, "Parties and Nation-Building in America," in Joseph LaPalombara and Myron Weiner, eds., Political Parties and Political Development (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966), pp. 79-106. 

 

Max Weber, Economy and Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), pp. 1443-1449. 

 

Typologies and Classifications of Party Systems: Important efforts beyond Sartori at thinking about how to classify party systems are Duverger, Political Parties, pp. 203-280; and Jean Blondel, "Party Systems and Patterns of Government in Western Democracies," Canadian Journal of Political Science Vol. 1 No. 2 (June 1968). 

 

Changes in Political Representation and the Decline of Parties

 

Russell J. Dalton, Scott C. Flanagan, and Paul Allen Beck, eds., Electoral Change in Advanced Industrial Democracies: Realignment or Dealignment?  (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), pp. 3-22, 95-103, 233-266, 399-401, 451-476.

 

Giovanni Sartori, "Video Power," Government and Opposition Vol. 24 No. 1 (Winter 1989), pp. 39-53.

 

Herbert Kitschelt, "New Social Movements and the Decline of Party Organization," in Russell J. Dalton and Manfred Kuechler, eds., Challenging the Political Order: New Social and Political Movements in Western Democracies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 179-208.

 

Sidney Tarrow, "The Phantom at the Opera: Political Parties and Social Movements of the 1960s and 1970s in Italy," in Russell J. Dalton and Manfred Kuechler, eds., Challenging the Political Order: New Social and Political Movements in Western Democracies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 251-273.

 

Alessandro Pizzorno, "Interests and Parties in Pluralism," in Suzanne Berger, ed., Organizing Interests in Western Europe: Pluralism, Corporatism, and the Transformation of Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 247-284.

 

Alan Ware, The Breakdown of Democratic Party Organization (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), pp. 175-208.  Discusses the impact of new campaign technology.     

 

Otto Kirchheimer, "The Transformation of the Western European Party Systems," in Joseph LaPalombara and Myron Weiner, eds., Political Parties and Political Development (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1966), pp. 177-200. 

 

Leon Epstein, Political Parties in the American Mold (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1986).  Examines the party decline debate for the US case. 

 

On the decline of party voting in the United States, see Norman Nie, Sidney Verba, and John Petrocik, The Changing American Voter (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976). 

 

For a statement on behalf of the party decline argument in the US, see William J. Crotty and Gary C. Jacobson, American Parties in Decline (Boston: Little, Brown, 1980).   

 

Frank L. Wilson, "When Parties Refuse to Fail: The Case of France," in Kay Lawson and Peter H. Merkl, eds., When Parties Fail: Emerging Alternative Organizations (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988), pp. 503-532.  Wilson argues that there has not been a decline of party strength in France.

 

Various writings of Philippe Schmitter on corporatism.