Collegial Democracy versus Personal Democracy: 'We' the People or 'I' the People? (Routledge Research in Comparative Politics)

This book examines two patterns of democracy – collegial and personal – through a comprehensive comparison of political institutions.

It develops a conceptual, theoretical, and methodological basis for differentiating collegial and personal democracies. Central institutions in democracy are classified according to their levels of personalism and collegialism, including political parties, candidate selection methods and electoral systems, legislature, and cabinets and governments. The book presents preliminary findings concerning the causes for this variance between the two democratic regime types.

The book will be of key interest to students and scholars of democratic institutions, personalism and personalization, political parties and, more broadly, democracy.

Chen Friedberg is a senior lecturer in the Middle Eastern Studies and Political Science Department at Ariel University and a research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.

Gideon Rahat heads the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, where he holds the Gersten Family Chair in Political Science. He is also a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.