Book review : Party–society relations in the Republic of Cyprus : political and societal strategies

Abstract

In contemporary representative democracies, political parties play an important role: this may be why, since the end of the Second World War, they have increasingly attracted the attention of political scientists. Parties mobilise the public debate, form governments alone or in coalition after elections, articulate and channel voters’ demands to the highest platforms of the national political debate, and occupy a generous segment of the public space. However, they also tend to exclude citizens from direct participation in the democratic decision-making process, and trans-party collusion may threaten fundamental democratic values. The argument on the role of political parties is complex, but an understanding of a country’s foreign and domestic politics – which, over the years, have increasingly overlapped – is impossible without a sound knowledge of parties and their relations with society and the organisations of civil society (CSOs).