Book review: Andrzej Antoszewski, “Parties and Party Systems in the EU Member States at the Turn of the 20th and 21st Centuries”, Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, Toruń 2010, pp. 376

The book by Andrzej Antoszewski consists of three parts. The first of them is of a theoretical character. The author analyses the concept of liberal democracy, trying to present the problems connected with this issue. In the second chapter, he discusses the idea of a party as a political institution and presents how the social and cultural changes infl uence its activity. In a very interesting way, he describes the conditions in which political parties in Central and Eastern Europe were established. He wonders whether the diff erent circumstances in which they were formed have aff ected the way they operate and their mutual relations.