Excerpt from Greater European Governments The present work deals only with a very small part of the great subject of political parties. It is simply an attempt to study the relation between the development of parties and the mechanism of modern government, and other questions are referred to only so far as they have a bearing on the main theme. In carrying out this object, a systematic order of arrangement has been followed so far as practicable. The treatment of each country begins with a description of its chief institu tions, or political organization; this is followed by a sketch of its recent history, in order to show how the parties actually work; and, finally, an attempt is made to find the causes of the condition of party life. The investigation is limited to the principal countries where a division into two great parties does not prevail, and where there usually exists in its place a division into a number of more or less sharply defined political groups. This department of the subject seemed to separate itself naturally from the rest, and was selected mainly because it had been far less studied than the growth and in fluence of the by-party system that prevails generally in anglo-saxon countries. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.