ABSTRACT
Parties are the main link between people and government in the contemporary world. Elections are the key mechanism of this link: they are the only way in which the bulk of the population can express its support for a party rather than another. They are therefore perhaps the most fundamental and the most distinguishing feature of modern governments. Indeed, they are given prominence even where governments leave no choice to electors, since they are designed to appear to give legitimacy to regimes which are basically maintained by imposition.
