ABSTRACT
The preceding chapters examined the extent to which established parties engaged in strategies in the period 1950–2009, as well as the impact of these strategies upon those parties' centrality in their respective national party systems. This final chapter brings together the results of the study and broadens out the analysis of the impact of strategies to all 17 countries under consideration. Strategies can explain, to a certain extent, the success of established parties across western Europe, but this chapter addresses a number of caveats to provide a more complete overview of the impact of strategies on the fate of established parties.
