Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties

<p><em>Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties </em>originally published in 1902 represented the first serious attempt to analyze the consequences of democratic suffrage by a comparative analysis of political systems. As such Ostrogorski's two-volume study of the party system in Britain and the United States exerted profound influence on the subsequent writings of Max Weber and Robert Michels. A descriptive analyst of the party system in these two countries Ostrogorski developed concepts and methods that an-ticipated by nearly half a century those later used by American and British political scientists.</p><p>The core of Ostrogorski's analysis is a detailed history of the rise of and changes within the party system in Britain and the United States the first nations to introduce mass suffrage. While the emphasis of <em>Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties </em>is on the similar trends in the political parties of both countries Ostrogorski also showed concern with the sources of differences between them. Seeking to explain these variations he suggested a number of fundamental hypotheses about these two societies that con-tinue to be of relevance today. Lipset's substantial introduction places Os-trogorski's work within its historical context and assesses Ostrogorski's im-pact and influence on both his contemporaries and on later political scien-tists.</p>