The Role of Parties in Twenty-First Century Politics

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<P>For a long time analyses of political parties were framed within the usual context of democracy and of the historical transformation of the forms of democratic government. More recently several authors, among which eminently Peter Mair, progressively began to question the relationship between the normative definition of democratic government and the actual operation of parties. These new concerns are well epitomized by the tension between ¿responsiveness¿ and ¿responsibility¿ that gives the title to this book.</P><br/><br/><P>While classic democratic theory sees as desirable that parties in government (and in opposition, too) are sympathetically <I>responsive </I>to their supporters first and more generally to public opinion and, at the same time, <I>responsible </I>toward the internal and international systemic constraints and compatibilities, these two roles seem to have become more difficult to reconcile and even increasingly incompatible.</P><br/><br/><P>The chapters of this boo