Parliamentary Democracy: Democratization, Destabilization, Reconsolidation, 1789-1999 (Advances in Political Science) Book

A comprehensive study of the parliamentary regimes since 1789, the book covers the road to the parliamentarization of former constitutional monarchies and the creation of parliamentary regimes by exercising the constitution-making power of the people. What has been called democratization in most of the 'transitology' literature was, until 1918, mostly only parliamentarization'. Democratization of the regimes frequently caused a certain destabilization of the parliamentary regimes by new parties and extremist movement entering the political arena. Democratization of parliamentary regimes was - with few exceptions - followed by crisis and destabilization - sometimes even by a devolution toward authoritarianism. Destabilization after 1945 was, with few exceptions (France, Greece), ended by reconsolidation of parliamentary democracy. The book covers the functions of parliament and the recruitment of deputies and traces the conditions of government formation and government dissolution in the triangle of forces: parliament, government and head of the state. The book contains much statistical material and discusses the virtues and vices of formalized coalitions and theories of them.Read More