ABSTRACT
Let us start with the certainties: we are living in an era of political change; the contemporary West European political parties now exist in an environment of quite pervasive electoral instability; over the past 15 years, this electoral flux, which is evident at both the aggregate and individual level, has been more pronounced than at any other comparable period since the end of the Second World War; finally, as we move towards the end of the twentieth century, there is little evidence to suggest that this flux is likely to abate. 1
