Party Decline in the West A Skeptic's View

Abstract

In an attempt to test theories of the decline of political parties, survey data from the United States, Great Britain, Sweden and Norway are presented, and the literature on those nations is reviewed as well as that on France and West Germany. The conclusion is that party decline is by no means universal, nor does it take the same form where it does appear, or among the same social groups. Therefore far too much generalizing has been done, and the decline of party should be considered a nation-specific phenomenon rather than one that applies across most western industrialized nations and for similar reasons.