European political parties / edited by Stanley Henig and John pinder

There have been surprisingly few comparative studies of political parties in Western Europe. Yet the party remains a crucial unit for political organization and the wielding of political power in practically every Western European country; and in view of recent changes in the system and structure of many of these parties there is a pressing need for a new book on the subject. At the same time, the development of ever closer links between the major countries in Western Europe must focus particular attention on political parties. In any integration process they obviously have a major role to fulfil, and a good deal of discussion already centres on the question of the formation of transnational parties. The resignation of President de Gaulle is likely to give fresh impetus to the integration movement and, particularly, to the evolution of a democratic parliamentary system for Western Europe as a whole - in which parties would perform a crucial role. These are some of the questions considered in the present book. Initial analysis is on a country by country basis. Individual chapters deal with the five larger countries in the European Economic Community (there is an appended note on Luxem- bourg), as well as with Austria, the Republic of Ireland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
A single large chapter, itself comparative in method, covers the five Scandinavian countries. In these chapters a considerable effort has been made to achieve similarity of method. The party system is described, and this is followed by a structural-
functional analysis of individual parties. Particular consideration is given to the relationship between the parties and their respective parliamentary groups, and between leaders and members. The remaining chapters are more thematic. One deals with the nascent trans-national groupings in various European assemblies, as well as with the more traditional international links of national
parties. The final chapter collates on a European basis the material presented earlier in the book, which covers the resignation of President de Gaulle and the election of a successor.