Parties and Democracy [antikvár]

PREFACE The KAS Democracy Report informs on the state of democratic development around the globe. After volume I, Media and Democracy (2005), and volume II, Rule of Law (2006), volume III focuses on the role of political parties in the process of démocratisation in our partner countries. The report also covers the problems of institutionalising democratic parties and party systems. PoUtical parties are not a sufficient but a necessary condition of pluralist democracy. They perform functions which help to organise complex societies and to produce legitimacy for political decisions. Originally founded as agencies of civil society, parties act as a linkage between civil society and the state apparatus. They aggregate and articulate societal demands and interests and provide channels for organised political participation. They formulate political programmes, and in doing so contribute to political identification and integration. Parties and their actors try to offer solutions to a variety of political problems based on values, ideologies, and party programmes. Only parties compete for electoral support, and the parties' elected candidates represent the voters in parliaments or serve in executive positions. Finally, political parties, more than any other political organisation, prepare and recruit political candidates and potential decision-makers. The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) is a poUtical foundation. We do not only want to provide information for research. The primary goal of our international engagement is to promote democracy and democratic actors, including parties, democratic institutions and procedures abroad. For this purpose we need information about the state of democratic development, potential partners and the latter's internal procedures -information provided by our local representatives and other experts. The reports provide information about the parties' contribution to democracy and their programmatic and organisational standing. The information provides valuable hints for us about the deficits where we can focus our work. We are convinced that the stabilisation of