Political parties and democracy: A mutual murder?

Abstract

Abstract According to the classical Eastonian approach a political system faces stress when it is not able to respond to an acceptable number of demands. The support for the system then drops. In this article we use this conceptual tool to attempt to explain in very general terms the existing anti‐party sentiment in Western democracies. We try to show how democracy itself produces substantial stress for the system that could however be contained as long as political parties were able to act as collective identities between the citizens and the state. The adaptation and change of the traditional parties has made democratic systems more vulnerable to the erosion of support, and the parties themselves, as central actors in the systems, are the target of the protest.