Book Review: Inequality After the Transition: Political Parties, Party Systems, and Social Policy in Southern and Postcommunist Europe

can be found in party size. With the addition of this part of their theory, it becomes clear why parties are an essential feature of a working democracy. In a system with special issue groups only, there would be no incentive of showing long lasting costs of their policies. According to the authors, large parties discourage the temptation of proposing issues in a vacuum. The authors give the example of Proposition 13 in California property tax, where people were asked to vote on a tax decrease without the perspective of a resulting decline in the quality of public schools. A current example of this is the Brexit referendum, where voters were not informed of the costs attached to voting Leave. Yet, this could also be solved through the process of re-election; if an issue group aims for re-election, they are more likely to be realistic about proposals as the electoral success in upcoming elections will make them accountable. One of the key features that proportional representation provides is the ability to give relatively small sections of society a platform. For instance, racial or religious minorities have the opportunity to form their own party. This is not possible in two-party systems however, according to Rosenbluth and Shapiro, this does not make it less representative. In a two-party system, parties need every vote. They will be more inclined to cater to the interests of vulnerable minorities, as this is an interest group that will not be owned by the competitor. A single party can represent Israeli Arabs, however this party is unlikely to join a coalition government with a right-wing Jewish religious party. Unless the party gets into government, the representation they provide is not influential. The authors use a controversial example to underline their point; in a less tense environment a party representing a minority may well opt to join a coalition with a mainstream party. It is unclear why a party would potentially abandon their majority group to gain the vote share of one vulnerable minority. In case of extremist groups, a “majoritarian system deni[es] entry to radicalism” (p. 164). This leads to another issue, what happens to groups when they cannot form their own parties and have not been able to shape a party’s policy agenda? The book stands out as it takes a problem-focused approach in understanding that people were disconnected from politics and the solution to this was seen in increased public participation encouraged through proportional representation and referenda. Yet, this has not worked as well as we had hoped. In understanding the problems that increased decentralisation has brought from country and regional case studies, the authors successfully embrace and rescue the idea of having only two parties. The book takes into account the individual circumstances of countries and even exceptions to the explanations, notably the so-called labradoodle Germany. A rational, problem-centric approach makes this a must-read book for everyone keen on finding a solution of discontent with current democratic structures.