11.1 The twentieth century as the century of parties, drawing the mass population into politics. But is there now a crisis of parties: thinning ideology, electoral dealignment and falling membership as leaders communicate through the media and rely on state funding? (p. 199).
11.2 Parties as groups that stand at elections and which seek power. Functions: directing government, providing a mechanism of electoral choice, recruiting elites, aggregating interests and policies (pp. 199-200).
11.3 Party organization: parties as complex, multilevel entities. Importance of 'the founding moment'. Cadre, mass and catch-all parties. The relationship between party organization and the parliamentary party. Michels’ iron law (pp. 204-07).
11.4 Declining membership, albeit from a post-war peak. Increasing age of members. Wrong to assume that fewer is always worse. New format parties (pp. 207-08).
11.5 Candidate selection varies with the country’s electoral system. Growing role of ordinary members. Primary elections: a mixed blessing? Leadership selection: conventions, membership ballot (increasing), parliamentary party or special committee? (pp. 209-11).
11.6 Party finance. The introduction of public funding. Arguments for and against. Forms of subsidy. Cartel parties. Hard and soft money. The USA as an outlier (pp. 212-14).
11.7 The social base of Western European parties in historic cleavages. The freezing hypothesis. Protest and flash parties as a reaction against these social changes. Niche parties. Soft party structures in Eastern Europe (pp. 214-16).
11.8 The concept of a party system. Dominant party systems and their decay. Two-party systems and adversary politics. The rise of multiparty systems: consensual but how dynamic? Ideological party families in Western Europe: from the far left to the far right (pp. 216-22).
11.9 Parties in authoritarian states. No-party and one-party systems. The communist model: penetration of society and democratic centralism within the party. China’s massive party. Except for communist states, parties in authoritarian regimes are generally the instrument rather than the wielder of power (pp. 222-24).
11.10 In illiberal democracies, too, parties are more often a device than an actor. The example of Russia: parties as creatures of those who already hold power (pp. 224-25).
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