Party research lived a relatively quiet life during the 1970s and 1980s in
the western world, and to some degree also in Scandinavia, although the cen
tral role of parties in the Scandinavian democracies made it impossible for
political scientists to completely ignore political parties in their resea
rch. However, from the end of 1980s, political party research has been revi
talized, and the number of publications has increased substantially. The th
ree books reviewed here are part of the upswing during 1997, which, of cour
se, includes other books and publications from that particular year. Why th
is renewed interest in studying political parties? For a long period after
World War II, Scandinavian political parties were characterized as stable m
ass organizations. In 1973, the established Danish political system suffere
d an electoral backlash, and the shock waves gave fuel to speculations of p
arty decline in electoral behavior studies. At the same time, similar trend
s were visible in Finland and Norway. Much later, interest focused on findi
ng the same signs of decline in the internal party arena. The discussion is
still alive, and during this process students of political science have ga
ined new knowledge about parties and their organizations in Scandinavia.