Ranging across continents and centuries, addressing cases of both successful and failed articulation, the chapters underscore the importance of parties in structuring the relationships between states and civil society. Parties, in this analysis, actively articulate identities, cleavages, and interests that sustain and are sustained by the governments they make. " Building Blocs is a powerful counter to sociological arguments that present politics as a reflection of social ties and identities. Isaac William Martin, Professor of Sociology, University of California - San Diego The combination of an agenda-setting statement with empirical case studies allows the book to make an effective and forceful case for the political articulation approach." "This is the rare edited volume that presents itself as a manifesto for a new school of thought. The innovative and refreshing approach makes this book highly recommended for students of political parties in both established and developing democracies." "This brief but important edited volume introduces a new perspective in the study of political parties. Building Blocs exposes political parties as the most influential agencies that structure social cleavages and invites further critical investigation of the related consequences. However, when political parties exercise their power of interpellation efficiently, they are able to silence certain interests such as those of secular constituents in Turkey. When articulation becomes inconsistent, as it has in Indonesia, partisan calls grow faint and the resulting vacuum creates the possibility for other forms of political expression. This politicization of divisions, or "political articulation," is neither the product of a single charismatic leader nor the machinations of state power, but is instead a constant call and response between parties and would-be constituents. Drawing on the contributors' expertise in Indonesia, India, the United States, Canada, Egypt, and Turkey, this volume demonstrates further that the success and failure of parties to politicize social differences has dramatic consequences for democratic change, economic development, and other large-scale transformations.
But Building Blocs argues the reverse: that some political parties in fact shape divisions as they struggle to remake the social order. Do political parties merely represent divisions in society? Until now, scholars and other observers have generally agreed that they do.
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