Dr. Maoz Rosenthal
This project seeks to examine the manner in which contemporary executives and legislatures interact in parliamentary democracies. It aims to study this topic focusing on the changing role of political parties within this democratic institutional ecology.
In particular, the projects critically examines the ways in which political parties affect political ideologies and policy agendas represented in parliamentary systems. Over the past two decades, parliamentary democracies have seen an increase in the public salience of political party leaders, especially those leading the executive or striving to lead it. This phenomenon is manifested most clearly in the individualization of political discourse in parliamentary democracies, where the public focuses mostly on party leaders, and associated political ideologies and policy agendas with those leaders rather than with party labels.
Scholars differ in their understanding of this phenomenon’s relevance and implications for democratic governance. This project’s purpose is to offer an original analytical typology followed by an empirical analysis designed to examine the differences between these definitions and their consequences for governance, party politics, and democratic resilience in contemporary parliamentary democracies.