Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T10:30:57.992Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Introduction: The Challenges facing liberal democracy and Political Parties at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2009

Jean Blondel
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Political parties are one of the most important inventions of the modern world. We may not regard them as we regard electricity, television, or aeroplanes, yet they are just as much as part of our life. If parties did not exist, what would elections be like? How would parliaments conduct their business? How would we choose politicians? In short, how would we organize politics? It might be felt that we can live without parties, indeed some countries do not have them so far, but all 'advanced' modern countries have them.

Type
Focus: The Future of Democracy in the New Millennium: Can Parties Respond to the Challenge?
Information
European Review , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , May 1998 , pp. 157 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.The Federalist Papers (1787), Everyman Edition, Dent, London, 1911, in particular Letter X.Google Scholar
2.Ostrogorski, M. (1902) Democracy and the Organisation of Political Parties, 2 vols., (New York; Macmillan).Google Scholar
3.Michels, R. (1962) Political Parties (New York; Free Press).Google Scholar