Party Systems, Democracy & Ethnicity in divided societies

This publication is rework of an excellent thesis written by Mr. Anjulo for the completion of his graduate studies at the University of Osnabrueck. In it, Mr Anjulo deals extensively with two interrelated questions: First, he asks whether party systems and one of their most important attributes, institutionalization, is correlated with democratization at all and if so in what manner; secondly, he delves into the intriguing issue of ethnic parties and democratization – whether ethnic parties, as almost universally alleged ‘dangers for democratic consolidation’ or can contribute to moderation and social peace in divided societies. Using dependable Political Science research methods, he arrives at somewhat unorthodox findings and his analyses are well-grounded. On ethnic cleavages, for instance, he demonstrated that political institutionalization of ethnicity is correlated to decreasing political salience of ethnicity, at least in the compared country cases. Theoretically sophisticated and empirically sound, the thesis has been marked “Very Good” by both referees. The book, as an expanded and revised version of the thesis, is a valuable read for students, scholars and practitioners.