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Article: Remaking the Italian party system: how Lijphart got it wrong by saying it right. (Arendt Lijphart)
- Article from:
- West European Politics
- Article date:
- October 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Frank Cass & Company Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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CHANGING PARTY SYSTEMS
Party systems have been both the object of widespread research and growing theoretical agreement, a rare combination in political science. A major reason has been the exceptional stability of party systems: while individual parties have undergone fundamental change, the complex of interactions among parties does not appear to be that much different from, say, 50 years ago. Both on electoral and institutional grounds -- the two leading dimensions for the functioning of party systems -- continuity has proved to be the dominant feature.
This is not to say that the continuity might not be challenged. Over the past decade a growing body of ...