Index : p. 221-222.

Bibliography : p. 208-220.

1. Introduction: Defining `political party' -- The three faces of party organisations -- The structure of parties -- The role of parties in democratic states -- The crisis of parties -- Outline of the book -- 2. Party Systems: The importance of understanding party systems -- Early approaches to party systems -- Party system typologies -- The effective number of parties --
Explaining party system variation -- Which party system is best? -- Conclusion -- 3. Theories of Party Development:
The `internal' and `external' origins of parties -- An alternative view of the emergence of political parties -- Understanding party types -- Cadre parties to mass parties -- Challenging the mass party model: the catch-all party -- Organisational consequences of the catch-all party: the electoral-professional party model --
The cartel party -- Conclusion: Beyond the cartel -- beyond party types? -- 4. Ideology: On ideology and party politics -- Political cleavages -- Party families -- Ideology in contemporary European party politics -- Party ideology beyond Europe --
United States -- India -- Africa -- Conclusion -- 5. Party Members, Activists and Supporters: Defining party member, activist and supporter -- The rise (and fall?) of party members --
Why members? -- Party membership incentives: supply --
Leadership incentives: demand -- The costs of a membership organisation -- Explaining and reversing decline -- The effects of membership decline -- Conclusion -- 6. Candidate Selection:
The importance of candidate selection -- Selecting candidates --
The political system -- National legislation -- The candidate selection process: impact of different methods -- Territorial (de- ) centralisation and in/exclusiveness of the selectorate -- Supply and demand -- Supply -- Demand -- Conclusion -- 7. Policy Making: Who should be involved? -- The normative argument against intra-party democracy. Contents note continued: The normative argument for intra-party democracy -- Pragmatic arguments against intra-party democracy -- Pragmatic argument for intra-party democracy -- Who can be involved in policy making? -- Who wants to be involved in policy making? --
Who are involved in policy making? -- Conclusion -- 8. Campaigning: How campaigning has changed -- First era --
Second Era -- Third Era -- The limits of change -- Drivers of change -- Social changes -- Technological change -- Party-specific issues -- Impact of changes -- Financing -- Conclusion --
9. Government: Deciding to aim for government office -- Getting into government -- coalitions -- Factors impacting on coalition formation -- Portfolio allocation -- Conclusion -- 10. The Internationalisation of Party Politics: Party Internationals --
The First, Second, Fourth and Socialist Internationals --
The Liberal International -- International Democratic Union --
Communist International (Comintern) -- Europarties. Contents note continued: The Development of Europarties -- Limits to the development of Europarties -- Parties and globalization --
The internationalisation of campaign consultancy -- Conclusion --
11. The Future of Party Politics: Future direction in the study of political parties -- Are parties in crisis?

A systematic and comprehensive introduction to contemporary party politics in democratic states and evaluation of whether, and to what extent, parties are - as is often claimed - in crisis or decline