Dominant Political Parties and Democracy ─ Concepts, Measures, Cases and Comparisons

Bogaards (political science, Jacobs U. Bremen, Germany) and Boucek (politics, Queen Mary U. London, UK) present 12 chapters theoretically and empirically investigating the phenomenon of one-party dominance in established and new democracies and the relationship between dominant party rule and the quality of democracy. Opening chapters are primarily conceptual and discuss party "effectiveness" as a better measure of dominance than length of incumbency, measures of dominance and party fragmentation based on party voting power in government, and the relationship of district-level dominance to party system nationalization in France. The empirical studies compare sub-national party dominance in the Canadian provinces and the German states; the characteristics of Christian Social Union dominance in the German state of Bavaria; the factional politics of dominant parties in Britain, Italy, and Japan; and dominance without factions in the case of the Liberal Party of Canada. The question of the relationship of party dominance and the quality of democracy is addressed in relation to Mexico, South Africa, and other African democracies. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Matthijs Bogaards is Associate Professor of Political Science in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Jacobs University Bremen, Germany. Francoise Boucek is Teaching Fellow in the Department of Politics at Queen Mary University London, UK.