Book Cover -- Title -- Contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- List of contributors -- Series editor's preface -- Introduction: representative democracy and parliamentary party groups -- Approaches to the study of parliamentary party groups -- Bureaucratisation, coordination and competition: parliamentary party groups in the German Bundestag -- The United Kingdom: exerting influence from within -- Parliamentary parties in the French Fifth Republic -- Not yet the locus of power: parliamentary party groups in Austria -- Fractiocracy?: limits to the ascendancy of the parliamentary party group in Dutch politics -- PPGs in Belgium: subjects of partitocratic dominion -- A power centre in Danish politics -- Parliamentary party groups in the Swedish Riksdag -- The partyness of the Finnish Eduskunta -- The limits of whips and watchdogs: parliamentary parties in the Czech Republic -- Parliamentary party groups in Slovakia -- Parties and parliamentary party groups in the making: Hungary, 1989 1997 -- Second-rate parties?: towards a better understanding of the European Parliament's party groups -- Parliamentary party groups compared -- Bibliography -- Index.