What do Beppe Grillo, Silvio Berlusconi, Emmanuel Macron (and also Donald Trump) have in common? They are prime examples of the personalization of politics and the decline of political parties.
This volume systematically examines these two prominent developments in contemporary democratic politics and the relationship between them. It presents a cross-national comparative comparison that covers around 50 years in 26 democracies through the use of more than 20 indicators. It offers the most comprehensive comparative cross-national estimation of the variance in the levels and patterns of party change and political personalization among countries to date, using existing works as well injecting fresh cross-national comparative data. In the case of party change, it offers an analysis that extends beyond the dichotomous debate of party decline versus party adaptation. In the matter of political personalization, the emphasis on variance helps in bridging between the high theoretical expectations and disappointing empirical findings. As for the theoretically sound linkage between the two phenomena, not only is this the first study to comprise a comprehensive cross-national examination, but it also proposes a more nuanced understanding of this relationship.
30% off all books in the Comparative Politics Series for ECPR Member affiliates – please contact editorial@ecpr.eu for more details on how to claim the discount.
Gideon Rahat is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He works on political parties, candidate selection and electoral reform. He is author of The Politics of Regime Structure Reform in Democracies: Israel in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective (State University of New York Press, 2008), and Democracy within Parties: Candidate Selection Methods and their Political Consequences (with Reuven Y. Hazan) (Oxford University Press, 2010).
Ofer Kenig is a Senior Lecturer at Ashkelon Academic College and a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. His areas of research include comparative politics, political parties, leadership and candidate selection and Israeli politics. He co-authored the books Reforming the Israel Political System (2013) and The Promise and Challenge of Party Primary Elections (2016). In addition, he has published articles in a range of journals, including Electoral Studies and Representation, as well as chapters in edited volumes.
