Moscow, Europe Publishing House, 2006, pp 312
Walter Sulzbach’s book, written in post-war Germany in the early 1920s, tries answering the question - why do people join hands to form parties? Why is politics in a democratic society primarily understood as party politics? What can be considered a political party, and what can’t, even if it is called so? What motives make people join this or that party?
A scrupulous sociologist that he is, the author prefers facts to any sort of reflection on the nature of philosophic foundations of politics. However, this is not a superficial analysis of partisanship as such. The various views of partisanship are scrutinized with German meticulousness, from Marxist to anarchist and nationalist ones. An attempt is made to classify partisanship, introduce the concept of false parties and investigate the nature of party coalitions.
