A Synoptic View of the Party System
K.K. Kailash
COALITION POLITICS AND DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION IN ASIA by E. Sreedharan Oxford University Press, 2013, 285 pp., 750
October 2013, volume 37, No 10

Coalition Politics and Democratic Consolidation in Asia highlights the experience of four Asian countries, namely India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Japan with coalition politics. This book edited by E. Sridharan intervenes in three distinctive sub-disciplines of political science, coalition studies, parties and party systems and the literature on democratic consolidation. The central question that the book asks is whether coalition governments and politics provides space for the development of power sharing systems that are more accommodative of small parties and minorities. It specifically examines whether the inclusion of minority voices and preferences in governance and policy making could consolidate and improve the quality of democracy.

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