Toward a Systematic Analysis of Government-Party Relationships

After reviewing existing literature on party government, this article identifies the main information gaps regarding this topic. It points out the most important elements that a systematic study on govern ment-party relationships cannot overlook. The underlying question the author asks is who, in fact, governs in modern Western democracies— ruling parties or national executives? To answer this question, the author establishes a series of institutional variables, such as form of government, type of party and electoral system, among others. Next, depending on these characteristics, he constructs a typology on the forms that the government-party relationship can assume in terms of the greater or lesser autonomy of the former vis-à-vis the latter. Most of the study is devoted to suggesting an analytical strategy allowing for a comparative study on the topic.