The Role of Parties in Twenty-First Century Politics

Democracy was for long considered ‘unthinkable’ without parties. Is it still so? The main question at the beginning of the 21st century is whether the political parties will manage to retain their role of crucial mediator between state and society and at the same time to uphold the normative expectation of democratic theory._x005F_x000D_ This book was published as a special issue of West European Politics.