The course assesses the role and features of political parties and party systems as regards the functions of democratic representation, the exercise of political power and its democratic control. Its major themes concern democratic consolidation, political culture, typologies of party systems, political ideologies, the role of parties in the functioning of parliamentary institutions and executive bodies. Moreover, emphasis is given to the influence of social factors and historical events on the formation of particular cleavages – and correspondingly, to the rise or fall of particular parties – and on the ‘crisis of representation’ that some developed democracies are faced with.