Seymour Martin Lipset

Seymour Martin Lipset is Hazel Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Progressive Policy Institute, and the Woodrow Wilson Center. His many books include Political Man: The Social Bases of Politics (1960), American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword (1996), and It Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United States (2000).

April 2001, Volume 12, Issue 2

The Americanization of the European Left

In postindustrial societies, class is less important as a source of party cleavage. With the European left embracing a market-friendly “third way,” political divisions in Europe are increasingly resembling those in the United States.


Political Parties and Democracy

Political parties are one of the core institutions of democracy. But in democracies around the world, there is growing evidence of low or declining public confidence in parties. But are they in decline, or are they simply changing their forms and functions?