Um die Gestalt und die Funktionsweise politischer Herrschaftssysteme zu verstehen und zu erklären, ist es notwendig, deren informelle Elemente – die neben formalen Elementen existieren und mit diesen interagieren – in den Blick zu nehmen. In der Tat haben sich die Politikwissenschaft und...

Formal and informal politics from an institutional perspective: An analytical approach for comparative area studies Formal and informal politics as an object of social science analysis are connected in this paper with an institutional perspective. First, we survey the existing comparatively...

Electioneering for the Japanese Lower House has undergone significant changes in recent years. Not only institutional but also other environmental changes are pushing political actors in Japan to complement the hitherto dominant vote-mobilisation approach by vote-chasing strategies. Such...

Japan’s ruling party is a prime example of a dominant party. While dominant parties in other democracies around the world have lost their grip on power or have even disappeared altogether, the LDP is still going strong. What explains the success of the party? How did the LDP acquire its...

Factionalism can affect the stability and institutionalization of parties and party systems and it can impact on the efficiency and legitimacy of political parties and political systems as a whole. Nevertheless, factionalism has only received scant attention in the comparative literature on...