Author : Henrik Enroth
Publisher : ECPR Press
ISBN 13 : 1786605309
Total Pages : 259 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (866 download)
Book Synopsis Cartelisation, Convergence or Increasing Similarities? by : Henrik Enroth
Download or read book Cartelisation, Convergence or Increasing Similarities? written by Henrik Enroth and published by ECPR Press. This book was released on 2018-03-02 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is often suggested that political parties are becoming increasingly alike, and that party politics has turned into an elite affair where political professionals collude to further their self-interest rather than work to represent the interests of their constituents. In recent decades this diagnosis has been famously associated with Richard Katz and Peter Mair's cartel party theory. Yet so far this controversial thesis has not been subjected to systematic empirical scrutiny, nor has its conceptual and normative underpinnings been properly considered. In this volume a group of political scientists with different specialisations take on this task, focusing empirically on the Swedish party system, which the originators of the cartel party theory have suggested is especially conducive to the formation of party cartels. Collecting new and unique qualitative and quantitative data, the volume casts serious doubt on the validity of the cartel party theory as an explanation for party system change.