Some political scientists argue that cleavages, especially the class cleavage, no longer represent a significant point of political conflict. This book takes issue with this claim, demonstrating that other cleavages structure party competition. This is nowhere more evident than in the European Alpine region.
The book focuses on strategies employed by political parties operating in the Alpine region and identifies common themes and patterns of party competition. Moreover, the focus is on how Alpine parties operate on multiple levels--regional, national, and European--and how they have in some cases moved from -protest parties- to parties in power.