ABSTRACT
Introduction: the rise of populism in Americanised electoral markets The rise of populism in most consensus democracies may be regarded as a sign of the increasing gap between society and the established political elites. At the centre of this argument is the increasing erosion of encapsulated subcultures and the emergence of an electoral market of individualised voters. Here, we refer to this as the Americanisation of electoral and party politics. In this chapter, following a short theoretical section, we present a brief review of the main political party families in our five countries. The subsequent section discusses electoral systems and opportunities for public funding. This is followed by a section on the broad trends of change in the respective party systems. Finally, some conclusions on the party systems are drawn.
