The West European Party System

`valuable and well-produced volume' Times Higher Education Supplement

• Part 1 The development of the mass party: the origin of political parties, Joseph La Palombara and Myron Weiner; the advent of plebiscitarian democracy, Max Weber; caucus and branch, cadre parties and mass parties, Maurice Duverger; the party of democratic integration, Sigmund Neumann; the catchall party, Otto Kirchheimer; parties in pluralism, Alessandro Pizzorno. Part 2 The stabilization of party systems: structuring the party system, Giovanni Sartori; the "reach" of the party system, Hans Daalder; cleavage structures, party systems and voter alignments, Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan; towards a generalized concept of "Verzuiling", Stein Rokkan; the sociology of parties, Giovanni Sartori. Part 3 The transformation of party systems: persistence and change in western party systems, 1945-1969, Richard Rose and Derek W.Urwin; electoral volatility in Western Europe, 1948-1977, Mogens N.Pedersen; parameters of change, Peter Mair; the transformation of Western European party systems, Steven B.Wolinetz; models of change, Scott C.Flanagan and Russell J.Dalton; the nature of value change, Ronald Inglehart; dimensions of ideology in European party systems, Arend Lijphart; from class-based to value-based politics, Ronald Inglehart. Part 4 Types of party system: the two-party system and the multi-party system, Maurice Duverger; party systems and patterns of opposition, Robert A.Dahl; types of party system, Jean Blondel; the electoral balance, Stein Rokkan; a typology of party systems, Giovanni Sartori.