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Parties, Politics, and Democracy in the New Southern Europe

Richard Gunther editor P Nikiforos Diamandouros editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Johns Hopkins University Press

Published:11th Jun '01

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Parties, Politics, and Democracy in the New Southern Europe cover

In the acclaimed Politics of Democratic Consolidation, Nikiforos Diamandouros, Richard Gunther, and their co-authors showed how democratization unfolded in Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain, culminating in consolidated democratic regimes. This volume continues that analysis, posing the basic question: What kind of democratic politics emerged in those countries? It presents systematic analyses of the basic institutions of government and of the dynamics of electoral competition in the four countries (set in comparative context alongside several other democracies), as well as detailed studies of the evolution of the major parties, their electorates, their ideologies, and their performances in government over the past twenty years. The authors reach two major conclusions. First, the new democracies' salient features are moderation, centripetalism, and the democratization of erstwhile antisystem parties on the Right and Left. Second, no single "Southern European model" has emerged; the systems differ from one another about as much as do the other established democracies of Europe. Contributors: P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, University of Athens * Richard Gunther, Ohio State University * Thomas C. Bruneau, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey * Arend Lijphart, University of California at San Diego * Leonardo Morlino, University of Florence * Risa A. Brooks, Stanford University * Jose R. Montero, Autonomous University of Madrid * Giacomo Sani, University of Pavia * Paolo Segatti, University of Trieste * Gianfranco Pasquino, University of Bologna * Takis S. Pappas, College Year, Athens * Hans-Jrgen Puhle, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main * Anna Bosco, University of Trieste

Of uniformly high quality, these essays are notable in two respects. [They] are explicitly comparative, thus ensuring intellectual coherence and the prospect of theory building and hypothesis testing. The chapters are also empirically rich, drawing on numerous surveys as well as a voluminous secondary literature... The series has become a become an essential source for understanding the evolution of this important region. Choice Beyond its specific substantive merits, this volume represents a further important contribution to the fulfilment of the goals that the Committee on Southern Europe-and thei nformal network of arious scholars built around it-had set for themselves in the late 1970s: this is to foster research on the political peculiarities of these countries and to integrate local scholarship and competence into the broader international theoretical dbate. This volume is a further achievement in setting Southern Europe on the map of comparative politics. -- Stefano Bartolini Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans

ISBN: 9780801865183

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 26mm

Weight: 680g

496 pages