Synopses & Reviews
Describes the transformation of politics from a territorial voting behavior to one of national homogeneity.
Review
"...an exhaustive study of the processes by which electorates in Western European countries became increasingly nationalized in the late-19th and early-20th centuries."
CHOICE, P.V. Warwick, Simon Fraser University"Caramani is deeply versed in the multidisciplinary literature relevant to this model, and his interpretation of the data makes a nuanced and welcome contribution to the party systems literature."
Perspectives of Politics, Alice H. Cooper, University of Mississippi"For its rare blend of empirical support and theory-driven analysis, [this book] stands as one of the major contributions in the field of historical political sociology."
The International History Review, Piero Ignazi, University of Bologna
Table of Contents
Introduction: homogeneity and diversity in Europe; Part I. Framework: 1. The structuring of political space; 2. Data, indices, method; Part II. Evidence: 3. Time and space: evidence from the historical comparison; 4. Types of territorial configurations: national variations; 5. The comparative study of cleavages and party families; Part III. Towards an Explanation: 6. The dynamic perspective: national and industrial revolutions; 7. The comparative perspective: social fragmentation and territoriality; Conclusion: from territorial to functional politics.