A timely study of Lipset and Rokkan's classic work, this book examines the significance of the original volume for the history of political sociology and assesses its theoretical and empirical relevance to the present day.

Erik Allardt University of Helsinki Dag Anckar Abo Akademi Kris Deschouwer Vrije Universiteit Mattei Dogan Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Lauri Karvonen

Introduction
1. Cleavages, parties and democracy
Seymour Martin Lipset
Theoretical and analytical developments
2. 'Party systems and voter alignments' in the tradition of political sociology Erik Allardt
3. The freezing hypothesis: an evaluation Peter Mair
4. How bright was the future? The study of parties, cleavages and voters in the age of the technological revolution Lauri Karvonen and Jostein Ryssevik
Revisited themes
5. Are cleavages frozen in the English-speaking democracies? Richard S. Katz
6. Class, religion, party: triple decline of electoral cleavages in Western Europe Mattei Dogan
7. Change and stability in the Finnish party system? Pertti Pesonen
8. Japan - from emerging to stable party system? Joji Watanuki
9. The party systems of Spain: old cleavages and new challenges Juan Linz and Jose Ramon Montero
New perspectives and areas
10. Freezing pillars and frozen cleavages. Party systems and voter alignments in the consociational democracies Kris Deschouwer
11. From post-communism to neo-communism? The reconstitution of the party systems of East-Central Europe Ulf Lindstrom
12. Party systems and voter alignments in the new democracies of the third world
Vicky Randall
13. Party systems and voter alignments in small island states Dag Anckar