The partisan groups in parliament form the link between mass suffrage, parties and parliaments, and are generally accepted today as necessary instruments of parliamentary business. Parliamentary party groups are central actors in most European democracies. This volume analyses the manifestations and operations of these actors across thirteen different countries and in the European parliament.
Author(s): Knut Heidar
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 320
Book Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Contents......Page 5
List of figures......Page 8
List of tables......Page 10
List of contributors......Page 12
Series editor's preface......Page 14
Introduction: representative democracy and parliamentary party groups......Page 18
Approaches to the study of parliamentary party groups......Page 21
Bureaucratisation, coordination and competition: parliamentary party groups in the German Bundestag......Page 40
The United Kingdom: exerting influence from within......Page 56
Parliamentary parties in the French Fifth Republic......Page 74
Not yet the locus of power: parliamentary party groups in Austria......Page 88
Fractiocracy?: limits to the ascendancy of the parliamentary party group in Dutch politics......Page 106
PPGs in Belgium: subjects of partitocratic dominion......Page 123
A power centre in Danish politics......Page 147
Parliamentary party groups in the Swedish Riksdag......Page 162
The partyness of the Finnish Eduskunta......Page 178
The limits of whips and watchdogs: parliamentary parties in the Czech Republic......Page 194
Parliamentary party groups in Slovakia......Page 212
Parties and parliamentary party groups in the making: Hungary, 1989 1997......Page 231
Second-rate parties?: towards a better understanding of the European Parliament's party groups......Page 248
Parliamentary party groups compared......Page 265
Bibliography......Page 288
Index......Page 308
