How helpful do you find the theories of Almond (on political culture and cleavages) and Sartori (on party systems) for explaining the political instability experienced by pre-Fifth Republic France during the Third and Fourth Republics, by Weimar Ge

The first 200 words of this essay...

"How helpful do you find the theories of Almond (on political culture and cleavages) and Sartori (on party systems) for explaining the political instability experienced by pre-Fifth Republic France during the Third and Fourth Republics, by Weimar Germany, and by post-war Italy?"

This essay aims to discuss the relevance of socio- economic factors and party political systems, on explaining instability in central European democracies and if these reasons show an endemic failure in what Almond calls "Continental Europe" and Satori refers to as "Polarised Plural Party System." To fully tackle this debate both comparative theories must be fully understood. Then, what may then seem like a systematic mapping of each nation will actually show if the theories truly show a set of political norms around the continental European countries in question. The structure of this essay is taken from the conclusion of Almond's 'Comparative Political Systems'; as a 'future scholar' I will try out the theories for Fit to pre-Fifth Republic France during the Third and Fourth Republics, by Weimar Germany, and by post-war Italy.1

Definition, cause and effect

Gabriel Almond's seminal article 'Comparative Political Systems' is one of the earliest examples of comparative political development. By