Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a major analysis of the role of political parties in the development and promotion of democracy. Alan Ware offers an original discussion of an area of political life which has remained surprisingly under-examined the impact of parties on democratic life.
Ware''s work successfully combines a comparative study of parties with a comprehensive discussion of democratic theory. He examines the role of parties in one-party political systems, focussing on the issue of whether there can be democracy in such systems. One-party systems are then contrasted with those found in representative democracies. Ware offers a highly detailed analysis of the development, evolution and structure of political parties in the West, exploring such issues as the nature of voter-choice in two-party and multi-party systems, and who exactly controls the political system the voter or the parties, the political elite or the grass-roots activists? Finally, Ware looks at the internal operations
Table of Contents
1. Parties and Democratic Theory ; 2. Democracy in a One-party System ; 3. The Impact of Party Competition ; 4. The Public and Private Dimension of Parties ; 5. Participation in Political Parties ; 6. Control over Political Parties ; 7. Control Exercised by Political Parties ; 8. The Future of Parties as Agents of Democracy ;
