Oxford Scholarship Online: Parties and Democracy

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Subject: Political Science Book Title: Parties and Democracy

Parties and Democracy

Coalition Formation and Government Functioning in Twenty States

Budge, Ian Professor of Government, University of Essex

Keman, Hans Professor of Political Science, Free University of Amsterdam

Print publication date: 1993
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2003
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-827925-9
doi:10.1093/0198279256.001.0001

Abstract: Parties are the central institution through which mass representative democracies now work. This book covers four aspects of their activities at governmental level—the actual formation and termination of governments; the distribution of ministries between parties forming the government; and policymaking. In each area, it proposes theories and models of how parties drive these processes, and checks them against comparative evidence for 20 States from 1946–85. Initial hypotheses are broadly upheld by this evidence, supporting a general theory of democratic functioning described in Chs. 3 and 7. This has considerable implications for the general theory of the State. The evidence used in the book has been updated and extended. It is now published as Jqap Woldendorp, hans E. Keman, and Ian Budge Party Government in 48 Democracies (1945–98): Composition, Duration, Personnel.

Keywords: coalitions, democracy, evidence, formation, ministries, parties, policy, termination, theory

Table of Contents

Introduction