The transformation of Western European party systems revisited

Why do parties fail? Cleavages, government fatigue and electoral failure in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary 1992–2012

“…When cleavages or issues change in salience, should parties respond by adapting their policies and electoral appeal or maintain the focus on their (declining) core? This question lay at the heart of the de-/re-alignment debate in West European politics (Rose and Urwin 1970, Inglehart 1971, Wolinetz 1979Daalder andMair 1983, Arter 2001); in post-communist Central Europe it is linked to the changing salience of regime change and state-building (Kitschelt 1992(Kitschelt , 1995. The risk to small or niche parties is that the salience of their core issues declines, their target group becomes smaller or they are crowded out by larger competitors moving onto their policy turf.…”

Change in European Societies since the 1970s

“…These questions go well beyond the scope of the present discussion, but the issues raised here provide essential background for addressing issues of political cleavage and organisation. Coverage of political sociology questions in the first 30 years of West European Politics usually drew on a Rokkanian framework of the sociology of twentieth century cleavages, but often to record their political decline (Crewe 1983;Wolinetz 1979). However, only one article, and an early one (Ersson and Lane 1981), actually discussed the decline of industrial and the rise of services employment.…”

Political parties and democracy: A mutual murder?

“…Of course this story needs quite a few nuances (Wolinetz 1979), and needs a warning against the pitfall of good-looking typologies (Deschouwer 1992(Deschouwer , 1993 but for this purpose I can stick to the standard story. Katz & Mair (1995) stress the fact that the catch-all party is to be seen mainly as an organizational adaptation, which it is, but they also put forward the idea that the new organizational forms and strategies refer to a new or at least adapted concept of democracy.…”