parties in liberal democracies

The State as a metaphysical entity is often taken to be an unavoidable concept at the base of any study of politics. However there exists a more fundamental assumption, that of a society of human beings sharing certain values, interests and beliefs, to which a owes its legitimacy. This is the assumption with which modern political science starts. What role does the political party system play in the interactions between the State and society? One …showed first 75 words of 1557 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1557 total…national interest. Parties alternate in power in a cyclical fashion, each party undoing what its predecessor has done, but no party actually acting in the interest of the group as a whole, but rather in that of its supporters. The example of Switzerland has shown that it is possible to represent the interests of most groups – in an approximate fashion – in spite of recent strains caused by rising support for the extremist People’s Party.