Political Parties And The Winning Of Office

This book offers an integrated theoretical perspective for explaining political party operations. Schlesinger examines the distinctive structure of the party organization, the nature of its collective outputs, and the direct and indirect rewards it offers participants. He also develops the impact of political ambitions and the structure of political opportunities and electoral arrangements on party capabilities. Schlesinger concludes by looking at the "changing multinuclear party" and the implications of his theory for comparative research. The comparative potential of the theory is demonstrated through the construction of a typology of parties based on officeholders' age and career paths for five Western democracies. ISBN 0-472-10202-8: $37.50.