Democratic Partisanship

Lise Esther Herman is Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Exeter. She is the author of (with Julian Hoerner and Joseph Lacey J, 'Why does the European Right accommodate backsliding states? An analysis of 24 European People’s Party votes (2011-2019)', European Political Science Review, Online First, 2021; 'Can Partisans be Pluralist? A comparative study of party member discourse in France and Hungary', British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 23 (1), 2020 and (with Russell Muirhead), 'Resisting Abusive Legalism: Electoral Fairness and the Partisan Commitment to Political Pluralism', Representation, Online First, 2020.

• AcknowledgementsList of Tables and FiguresChapter 1: The dual narrative of party crisisParties under Fire, but what for?Bridging the divide between theory and empiricsChapter 2: A theory of democratic partisanshipOn liberal democracy and partisanshipIdeological cohesiveness: The democratic conditionRespect for pluralism: The liberal conditionA realistic ideal?Chapter 3: Studying Partisanship in ContextFacilitating party member discussionsInterpreting partisan discourseComparing parties across borders 58Chapter 4: Democracy through the partisan lensParty politics in France and HungaryAn academic in the partisan arenaThe partisan view on party democracyKey findingsChapter 5: The cohesiveness of partisan identityFrench partisans between substance and dissonanceHungarian partisans in search of ideological groundingKey findingsChapter 6: Partisan respect for pluralismThe limits of exemplary pluralism in FranceThe threat of intolerant holism in HungaryKey findingsChapter 7: Democracy in partisan custodyDemocratic partisanship as an empirical practiceBack to the ideal of democratic partisanshipThe future of party democracyAppendix 1: Discussion guidelinesReferences

I am deeply impressed by this staggeringly original book which brings together so successfully the all too rarely combined ingredients of normative democratic political theory and the forensic empirical analysis of individual cases. In the process Lise Herman illuminates the current precarious condition of democratic partisanship like no other.