Democracy was for long considered 'uinthinkable' without parties. Is it still so? The main question at the beginning of the 21st century is whether the political parties will manage to retain their role of crucial mediator between state and society and at the same time to uphold the normative expectation of democratic theory.

This book was published as a special issue of West European Politics.

1. Responsive and Responsible? The Role of Parties in Twenty-First Century Politics 2. The Interdependence Challenge Responsible Party Government in a World of Interdependence 3. Testing Times: The Growing Primacy of Responsibility in the Euro Area 4. Responsible Government and Capitalism's Cycles 5. The Domestic Challenge Democratic Performance of Parties and Legitimacy in Europe 6. The Non-Procedural Determinants of Responsiveness 7. The Populist Challenge 8. A Question of Time: Responsive and Responsible Democratic Politics 9. Adaptation or Failure? Failing Political Representation or a Change in Kind? Models of Representation and Empirical Trends in Europe 10. Ideology, Parties and Social Politics in Europe 11. 'Stripped Down' or Reconfigured Democracy

Luciano Bardi is Professor of Political Science at the University of Pisa and part-time Professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (EUI, Florence), where he co-founded, with Peter Mair, the Observatory on Political Parties and Representation (OPPR). He has published extensively in the field of Comparative European Politics and on EU Parties and Party Systems.

Stefano Bartolini is 'Peter Mair Professor of Comparative Politics' at the European University Institute. He was previously Professor at the universities of Florence, Trieste, Geneva, and Bologna. From 2006 to 2013, he directed the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, Florence. In 1990, he was awarded the Stein Rokkan Prize and in 2001 the Gregory Luebbert APSA Prize.

Alexander H. Trechsel is Swiss Chair Professor in Federalism and Democracy and Head of the EUI SPS Department, Florence. A Faculty Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society (Harvard University), he is also Director of the European Union Democracy Observatory (EUDO) at the RSCAS. His research interests include e-democracy, direct democracy, federalism, European integration and political behaviour