This volume, first published in 1984, discusses the viability of applying the 'Mediterranean model' to three countries that were transitioning to democracy, - Spain, Greece and Portugal - combining both comparative and national case-study approaches. This title applies different theories of regime transition to the countries in question. This volume will be of interest to students of politics.

Geoffrey Pridham is Reader in European Politics at Bristol University. His works include Christian Democracy in Western Germany (1977), Transnational Party Cooperation and European Integration (1981) and The Nature of the Italian Party System: a regional case-study (1981). He is currently doing comparative work on coalitional behaviour in western Europe, and is writing a book on Political Parties and Coalitional Behaviour in Italy: an interpretative study.

Notes on the Contributors; Comparative Perspectives on the New Mediterranean Democracies: A Model of Regime Transition?; Part 1: The Process of Regime Transition: Three Parallel Roads to Democracy; 1. Spain's Evolutionary Pathway from Dictatorship to Democracy 2. Transition to, and Consolidation of, Democratic Politics in Greece, 1974-83: A Tentative Assessment 3. Continuity and Change in Portuguese Politics: Ten Years after the Revolution of 25 April 1974; Part 2: Party Systems and Party Development: Their Role in Democratic Transition; 4. Spain: Parties and the Party System in Transition 5. Political Parties in Post-Junta Greece: A Case of 'Bureaucratic Clientelism'? 6. Social Cleavages and Electoral Performance: The Social Basis of Portuguese Political Parties, 1976-83; Part 3: Comparative Themes of Regime Transition in Mediterranean Europe; 7. Southern European Socialism in Transition 8. The International Context of Democratic Transition 9. Government Performance: An Issue and Three Cases in Search of Theory; Abstracts; Index