Parties and Democracy: Coalition Formation and Government Functioning in Twenty States (Revised)

This book examines the actual behavior of 400 governments in 20 postwar democracies (including those of Western Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Israel) to determine how political parties operate and shape the special characteristics of individual governments. It concludes that parties do function more or less as modern democratic theory says they should, and provides an understanding of democratic government and its moral justification.