Presents a brilliant, persuasive case that American political parties, so often dismissed as immature or ineffective compared with their European counterparts, are in fact old and durable political organizations, serving well the needs of a pluralistic society. What chiefly distinguishes this work is the inclusion of considerable material on American parties in a comparative context to the analysis of British, Scandinavian, European, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand political parties.
Regulating Political Parties provides a novel and valuable contribution to the existing literature on political parties by discussing the various dimensions of party law and regulation, in Europe and other regions of the world. By bringing together international experts from the disciplines of law and political science, this volume addresses from an interdisciplinary and comparative point of view what has long been a notable lacuna in the study of political parties.
"This book examines Lebanese political parties and their encounters with modernity. Taking three, mainly Christian parties as an example, the book refutes the idea of Middle Eastern parties being backwards or antiquated. By combining historical and anthropological perspectives, it is shown that these parties stand for normativities of modernity. Lebanese, as well as Middle Eastern parties in general, have a rather poor reputation: they are considered family-based, ideologically meaningless, tailored solely to their leadership, and non-modern. Contrastingly, this book claims that the concept of the "real party" corresponds to an encounter with modernity and that these parties, although dysfunctional in parts, are better than their reputation. Most importantly, Lebanese parties are taking the nation-state as their central reference point, as they recognise it as the legitimate form of societal organization. The volume claims that important constituents of modernity, such as the individual, the nation, secularity, progress, and representing the people (demos), serve for the parties in question as resources of utopian elements. Bringing Lebanese political parties into a global debate on modernity, the book tackles the notion of parties of the Middle East being non-modern. It will be of interest to scholars researching political science, political history and the Middle East"--
Introduction: Analysing and categorising political parties in the Pacific Islands /Roland Rich --Primordial politics? Political parties and tradition in Melanesia /Steven Ratuva --Political consequences of Pacific Island electoral laws /Jan Fraenkel --Anatomy of political parties in Timor-Leste /Joao M. Saldanha --Political parties in Papua New Guinea /R.J. May --parties, constitutional engineering and governance in the Solomon Islands /Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka --The origins and effects of party fragmentation in Vanuatu /Michael G. Morgan --Parties and the new political logic in New Caledonia /Alaine Canter --Fiji : party politics in the post-independence period /Alumita Duruntalo --The establishment and operation of Samoa's political party system /Asofu So'o.
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The low level of representative power and political parties in Lithuanian public opinion inspired this analysisof political parties, as organizations using basic knowledge of management science. Understanding that voters areconsumers of political party's activities result, programs for election campaigns are considered as a main product ofpolitical parties' activity basing on the most popular contemporary understanding of political party. Basing on thefundamentals of management science a strategy of state development and persons prepared to implement thatstrategy in representative and governmental institutions are considered as a more valuable product of party activitiesin the article. Acquiring the power to govern a state for long enough period, when more than half of citizensparticipating in elections are oriented towards short term goals is considered as a paradox of democracy. Creationand popularizing a philosophy of political party, forming a field of main values in the state's life, serving as a basisfor strategy and short time election programs is considered as a mission of political parties in contemporaryLithuania enabling to overcome the paradox of democracy.
"As religion and politics become ever more intertwined, relationships between religion and political parties are of increasing global political significance. This handbook responds to that development, providing important results of current research involving religion and politics"--
In this book the author proposes that parties are indispensable to modern politics and that the absence of parties suggests that a system is governed by a traditional elite which has yet to come to terms with the modern world. Without them it would be impossible to legitimize modern systems, to engage the loyalty and support of the citizens. The alternative to party rule is either aristocracy or violent repression. In all systems the party widens the area from which political leaders are recruited and is thus a 'democratising' if not necessarily a 'liberalising' force.
"This book analyses parties beyond the national borders and their increasing institutionalization abroad, in order to understand their development, their organisational specificities, their functions, and their impact on the party system and national politics at home. With 12 contrasted case studies, it comparatively addresses a wide range of perspectives on political parties abroad and lays the foundation for a framework of analysis of political parties abroad, contributing to a better understanding of transnationalism and long-distance democracy. The generalisation of overseas voting and the development of representative institutions for emigrants has transformed the civic and political links between states and their diaspora. This has also created new opportunities for political parties, with the task to reach out to citizens living abroad, mobilize them for elections, and even organize their representation at home. This book represents the first in-depth study of an emerging phenomenon. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political parties/party politics, immigration, and more broadly to democracy studies and comparative politics"--
AbstractFor more than four decades the analysis of party organizations in the European democracies has been completely separated from analyses of American party structures. The first part of this article examines how and why such a separation was to emerge in the aftermath of Duverger's and Epstein's path-breaking original work. It then goes on to outline how an analytic framework might be developed so that more wide-ranging comparative studies of party organizations in democratic regimes can be undertaken in future. Only with such research can the limitations of 'exceptionalist' and 'regionalist' explanations of party structure development and change be overcome.
