TOWARD A SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF GOVERNMENT PARTY RELATIONSHIPS

After reviewing existing literature on party government, this article identifies the main information gaps regarding this topic. St points o ut the most important elements that a systematic study on government-p arty relationships cannot overlook. The underlying question the author asks is who, in fact, governs in modern Western democracies-ruling pa rties or national executives? To answer this question, the author esta blishes a series of institutional variables, such as form of governmen t, type of party and electoral system, among others. Next, depending o n these characteristics, he constructs a typology on the forms that th e government-party relationship can assume in terms of the greater or lesser autonomy of the former vis-a-vis the latter. Most of the study is devoted to suggesting an analytical strategy allowing for a compara tive study on the topic.