Parties and Party Systems
Revised June 2006
Types of Party Systems
Giovanni Sartori, Parties and Party Systems, pp. 1-29, 56-67, 119-145, 173-201, 244248.
Giacomo Sani and Giovanni Sartori, "Polarization, Fragmentation and Competition in
Western Democracies," pp. 307-340 in Hans Daalder and Peter Mair, eds., Western
European Party Systems: Continuity and Change (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1983).
Scott Mainwaring, Rethinking Party Systems in the Third Wave of Democratization: The
Case of Brazil (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999), Chapter 2.
Social and Political Shaping of Party Systems
Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan, "Cleavage Structures, Party Systems, and
Voter Alignments: An Introduction," pp. 1-6, 9-23, 26-35, and 46-56 in Lipset and
Rokkan, eds., Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives (New
York: Free Press, 1967).
Giovanni Sartori, "From the Sociology of Politics to Political Sociology," pp. 65-95 in
Seymour Martin Lipset, ed., Politics and the Social Sciences (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1969).
Adam Przeworski and John Sprague, Paper Stones. Skip pp. 13-28 and the appendices,
i.e., pp. 96-99, 126-141, 187-201
Stathis N. Kalyvis, The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe (Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1996), pp. 1-20.
Spatial and Directional Competition
Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy (1957). (This book is also on the
“Canon” reading list.)
George Rabinowitz, Stuart Elaine MacDonald, and Ola Listhaug, “New Players in an old
Game: Party Strategy in Multiparty Systems,” Comparative Political Studies 24 (July
1991) No. 2: 147-185.
Torbin Iversen, “Political Leadership and Representation in West European Democracies:
A Test of Three Models of Voting,” American Journal of Political Science 38 No. 1
(1994): 45-74.
Electoral Rules and Party Systems
Giovanni Sartori, "The Influence of Electoral Systems: Faulty Laws or Faulty Method?,"
pp. 43-68 in Bernard Grofman and Arend Lijphart, eds., Electoral Laws and Their
Political Consequences (New York: Agathon, 1986).
Gary W. Cox, Making Votes Count: Strategic Coordination in the World's Electoral
Systems (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 203-221.
Rational Politicians and Parties
David R. Mayhew, Congress: The Electoral Connection (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1974), pp. 1-105.
Mathew D. McCubbins and Frances Rosenbluth, "Party Provision for Personal Votes:
Dividing the Vote in Japan,” pp. 35-55 in Peter F. Cowhey and Mathew D. McCubbins,
eds., Structure and Policy in Japan and the United States (New York and Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1995).
Party Organization
Angelo Panebianco, Political Parties: Organization and Power (New York and Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. xi-xviii, 1-20.
Herbert Kitschelt, The Logics of Party Formation (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
1989), preface + pp. 1-74.
Steven Levitsky, Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: Argentine
Peronism in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003),
pp. 1-34, 58-90, 107-125, 133-203, 231-249.
Other Important Works
Herbert Kitschelt, "Linkages between Citizens and Politicians in Democratic Politics."
Comparative Political Studies 33 No. 6/7 (August/September 2000): 845-879.
Kanchan Chandra, Why Ethnic Parties Succeed, Chapters 1-5.