When Parties Prosper: The Uses of Electoral Success Edited by: Kay Lawson and Peter H. Merkl Have parties, and party systems, come back to life in the twenty-first century? Are they capable of playing their roles in ways that will foster rather than betray the public interest? These are among the questions explored in When Parties Prosper, a richly comparative, up-to-date, and accessible study of political parties in power in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.