The Internal Life of Parties

Abstract

Abstract In most theories of democracy and in the actual practice of nearly all democratic governments, political parties play a crucial role. Given the hostility to parties expressed by some theorists (e.g. Barber 1984), and practitioners (e.g. Charles de Gaulle) of modern democracy, and the non partisan experience of some very small political units (e.g. the Bailiwick of Jersey), it may be an exaggeration to say with Schattschneider (1942: 1) that modem democracy is unthinkable save in terms of the parties’. Yet there are no significant democratic countries, and precious few subdivisions within those countries, in which parties are not, in fact, centrally important actors. As is implicit in the last sentence, parties often are treated as corporate or even unitary actors.

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