Political Parties in the New Europe Political and Analytical Challenges

The scope and intensity of the challenges currently faced by western European political parties is exceptionally large, threatening the viability of the manner in which they have traditionally operated and causing them to seek new behaviours and strategies. This volume brings together some of the foremost scholars of European party politics, whose evaluation of political parties in "the new Europe" is organised under four broad headings: Parties as Corporate Actors; Parties and Society; Parties and the State and Parties Beyond the Nation State. Each contributor not only provides a concise, critical review of the theoretical and methodological "state of the art" in respect of a specific aspect, but also reviews the latest empirical findings in that area.

The scope and intensity of the challenges currently faced by West European political parties is exceptionally great, threatening the viability of the manner in which they have traditionally operated and causing them to seek new behaviours and strategies. This volume brings together some of the foremost scholars of European party politics, whose evaluation of political parties in 'the new Europe' is organised under four broad headings: 'Parties and Society'; 'Parties as Purposive Organizations'; 'Parties and National Government' and 'Parties, the Nation State, and Beyond'. The contributors review the latest empirical findings and provide a concise, critical review of the theoretical and methodological 'state of the art'. They also highlight the analytical challenges confronting party researchers and suggest new avenues for party research.

1 - Political Parties in a Changing Europe
2 - Political Parties and their Publics
3 - Party Organizational Linkage: Parties Without Firm Social Roots?
4 - Campaign Modernization and the West European Party
5 - The Internal Life of Parties
6 - Party Organizational Change: Competing Explanations?
7 - Parties, Ideologies, and Issues: Stability and Change in Fiftenn European Party Systems 1945-1998
8 - Parties and Government Formation, Portfolio Allocation, and Policy Definition
9 - Policy-Making Capacities of European Party Government
10 - Parties and their Institutional Framework
11 - Parties and Party Systems in the European Union
12 - Parties and Party Research in the New Europe