Political Thought on Democracy Related to Political Parties

Abstract

In a search for the link between parties and democracy, several strands of literature are analysed: early liberal thought, empirical liberalism literature and literature on illiberalism and a variety of post-World War II democratic ideals at the national, international and global levels. Political parties are found neither in early liberal thought nor in the many streams of the recent literature on forms of governing. Nevertheless, the real-life emergence and functioning of parties has put pressure on the literature on governing, within the fields of political thought and political science, to respond to their empirical existence.