In this authoritative volume, Ezra N. Suleiman and an international panel of political scientists examine the complexities of the political process in seven democratic countries. Noting that the classical model of democracy in which the elected representatives of the people form the centre of the legislative and decision-making process is no longer valid, the contributors explore the increasing accountability of elected officials to their political parties.

The book eschews the over-simplified interpretation of democratic government as competition among political elites. The contributors propose, instead, that the distribution of power among political institutions is not clear-cut and unchanging, and they show how each of these parliaments is controlled by its constitutional basis, the party system, the governmental structure, the recruitment of elites, the opposition system, and its own internal mechanisms.