Money, Votes, and Political Leverage: Explaining the Electoral Performance of Liberals in Interwar France and Germany

The capacity of political parties to adapt to rapid political change has received little attention. The literature on parties usually studies political organizations from either a sociological perspective, as if they are automatically transformed by socioeconomic changes, or a rational choice perspe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial science history Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 211 - 240
Main Author Kreuzer, Marcus
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, US Cambridge University Press 01.07.1999
Duke University Press
Sage [etc.]
Subjects
Crosscultural Analysis
Elections
Electoral systems
Financial leverage
France
Germany
Interest Groups
Interwar years
Left Wing Politics
Liberalism
Liberals
Middle Class
Organizational Effectiveness
Political campaigns
Political candidates
Political elections
Political history
Political interest groups
Political Parties
Political Systems
Proportional representation
Radicalism
Twentieth Century
Voters
Voting
Voting machines
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The capacity of political parties to adapt to rapid political change has received little attention. The literature on parties usually studies political organizations from either a sociological perspective, as if they are automatically transformed by socioeconomic changes, or a rational choice perspective, as if they optimally adapt themselves to environmental changes. Neither approach pays sufficient attention to parties’ internal decision making and its effect on their capacity to innovate. This article compares the Parti radical (French Radical Party, Radicals) with the Deutsche Demokratische Partei (German Democratic Party, DDP) and the Deutsche Volkspartei (German People’s Party, DVP) during the interwar period to demonstrate how electoral mechanisms can systematically account for their different innovative capacities.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ObjectType-Article-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
ISSN:0145-5532
1527-8034
DOI:10.1017/S014555320001806X