Political Parties and Electoral Change - Party Responses to Electoral Markets (Paperback, New)

How have Europe's mainstream political parties responded to the long-term decline in voter loyalties?

What are the consequences for parties of this change in the electoral markets

in which they now operate?

Popular disengagement, disaffection, and withdrawal on the one hand, and increasing popular support for protest parties, on the other, have become the hallmarks of modern European politics. This book provides a comparative overview and account of how the parties in Western Europe have perceived these contemporary challenges of electoral dealignment and how they have responded - whether organizationally, programmatically, or institutionally.

Each chapter employs a common format to present and compare the changing strategies of established parties and party systems in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, and Ireland.

Together they serve to provide new insights into how the parties have sought to deal with new electoral uncertainties, as well as into the question of how institutional, technological or cultural changes might also be seen to constitute part of the party response.

The result is an invaluable comparative portrait of contemporary party strategies and a very full analysis of how parties interact with one other, and with the voters. It will be essential reading for anybody seeking a deeper understanding of today's electoral politics and of the challenges facing contemporary west European party systems.