The dynamics of two-party politics : party structures and the management of competition / Alan Ware.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [135]-153) and index.

Why major parties collapse -- Major party collapse and conflict on two fronts -- Party structures and party dissolution -- The logic of party fusion -- How major parties form electoral coalitions with other parties.

"This book examines the role played by the parties themselves in two-party systems. It rejects the argument that the behaviour of the parties is determined largely by social forces or by the supposed logic of the electoral market. Instead, it shows that both structure and agency can matter. It focuses on three major aspects of change in two-party systems: (i) why occasionally major parties ( such as the British Liberals) collapse; (ii) why collapsed parties sometimes survive as minor parties, and sometimes do not; and (iii) what determines why, and how, major parties will ally themselves with minor parties in order to maximize their chances of winning." -- Publisher.