States of Credit. Size, Power, and the Development of European Polities

from a single social class. This is interpreted as evidence that parties tend to move towards the ideological centre and abandon their core constituency. This conclusion apparently ignores a previous finding in the book, which is that voters (both independent and partisan) are on average more ideologically centrist than the party they vote for. More carefully developed theoretical models would make it easier to identify any contradictory findings such as this. In sum, the book is crammed full of interesting evidence relating to various aspects of party politics in modern Europe, including the policy differences between political parties, the coherence of party programmes, the social base of party support, the complexity of party organisations, and the ideological congruence between parties and voters. It will provide a valuable resource for anyone looking for evidence relating to these important issues. The explanations put forward for these empirical findings, while plausible, deserve further scrutiny.