The fourth edition of Representative Government in Modern Europe continues the tradition of previous editions by uniting the theoretical analysis of representative government and its application to the real world of politics. The unique focus of this book, as always, is on the core features of representative government as they manifest themselves across the whole of modern Europe. The book identifies and discusses broad themes and patterns in the politics of modern Europe, and examines these in the context of the whole of modern Europe--not, as some other books do, only with regard to a handful of often atypical countries. Europe has been transformed since the first edition by the dramatic democratization of many of the former Communist states of central and eastern Europe. Thus the fourth edition has also been transformed -- country coverage has been extended to include all of the eight post-communist states that are now members of the EU and discussion of politics in these countries has been integrated into the main body of text and tables. being in May 2004 and the discussion reflects the ways in which thinking about representative government has changed as a result of these dramatic developments.