Peter H. Merkl

When Parties Fail: Emerging Alternative Organizations

Throughout history parties have faltered and new groups have emerged, but rarely has this process been so accelerated, so widespread, and so conducive to dramatic political change as in our present era. When Parties Fail explores alternative organizations in depth and comparatively. Among the organizations discussed are environmentalist groups, such as the West German and Swedish Greens, the Italian Radicals, and local protest groups in Japan, Switzerland, and the United States. Also considered are new groups seeking attention in unresponsive party systems, such as the Danish Gilstrup party, the British SDP, and American PACs; community parties and movements in Israel, India, Britain, and the American South; and antiauthoritarian movements in Poland (Solidarity), Taiwan, and Ghana. The case of France provides an example of major party survival. Three broadly comparative chapters consider the reasons for major party persistence in some nations and the causes and impact of their decline in others.The contributors to the book are David Apter, Myron J. Aronoff, Liang-shing Fan, Frank B. Feigert, Zvi Gitelman, Ronald J. Herring, Jon Kraus, Kay Lawson, Tom Mackie, Peter H. Merkl, Raffaela Y. Nanetti, Angelo Panebianco, Mogens N. Pedersen, Geoffrey Pridham, Peter Pulzer, Richard Rose, Donald Schoonmaker, Frank Sorauf, Robert C. A. Sorensen, Evert Vedung, Hanes Walton, Jr., and Frank L. Wilson.Originally published in 1988.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Parliamentarians Against Ministers: The Case of Western European Union

Western European Union (WEU) is unique in the family of European organizations. Its membership comprises Great Britain in addition to the inner circle of the six nations of Little Europe. As such it was hailed as a big step forward from the continental limitations of European integration. Its special task, besides residuary powers in the cultural, social, and economic field, has been defense and the control of armaments. Western European Union was erected on the ruins of the European Defense Community (EDC) by the Paris Agreements of October 1954. Its legal basis was the Brussels Treaty Organization of 1948, a defensive alliance against future German aggression which over the years had left its military functions to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and had concentrated on its cultural and social role.

Democratic Development, Breakdowns, and Fascism

A. James Gregor, Italian Fascism and Developmental Dictatorship. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, I979, 4I2 pp.,

Political Cleavages and Party Systems

27.50 (

Reviews : Richard Bessel, Political Violence and the Rise of Nazism. The Storm Troopers in Eastern Germany 1925-1934, London & New Haven, Yale University Press, 1984; xii + 215pp; £18.00

9.75 paper). Anthony James Joes, Fascism in the Contemporary World: Ideology, Evolution, Resurgence. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, I978, 234 pp.,

The Future of social democracy : problems and prospects of social democratic parties in Western Europe

I7.50 (

When Parties Fail

8.50 paper). Charles Tilly, From Mobilization to Revolution. Reading, Mass.: AddisonWesley, I978, 336 pp.,

When parties prosper : the uses of electoral success

8o50 (paper). Gino Germani, Authoritarianism, Fascism, and National Populism. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Books, I978, 280 pp.,

Executive-Legislative Federalism in West Germany.

I7.50 (

ONE. Alternative Organizations: Environmental, Supplementary, Communitarian, and Antiauthoritarian

5.95 paper). Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan, eds., The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, I978, 687 pp.,