THE LITERATURE ON EUROPEAN PARTIES AND PARTY SYSTEMS SINCE 1945 - A QUANTITATIVE-ANALYSIS

This article analyses the structure and evolution of the literature on parties and party systems in Europe since 1945. Using a bibliographic al database comprising all references to scientific work on parties an d party systems, we propose an innovative quantitative analysis. The c ompleteness of our database allows us to show in detail the evolution of the literature over time. On the basis of a systematic coding of al l references with respect to the type of parties, the countries and to pics covered, as well as the language, place and type of publication, we propose a detailed quantitative analysis of the literature in all i ts dimensions. The result of our exploration is an accurate map of the literature on political parties in Europe.