CASAL BÉRTOA, F. / / DUMONT, P.
We are likely to learn much more by exploring the systems of understudied nations rather than by replicating studies about cases we already know much about.This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of political parties and party systems in each of the democratic European microstates, which tend to be relatively more democratic and stable than other party systems. Looking at party system development and institutionalization, the book examines what has caused the stability of microstates' party systems in the first place and to extract important lessons of how politics work in other "low-scale" political contexts, for instance, at the sub-national level. With chapters provided by leading experts in the field, the book contributes towards scaling down the level of analysis in comparative studies in social sciences that remain state-centred. It concludes with a discussion on the need to bring in microstates in the study of party politics in general. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of party systems and political parties, microstates, elections and democracy, European politics and more broadly to comparative politics.
