The Parameters of Party Systems

Abstract

A B S T R A C TDespite the scepticism that increasingly surrounds their role and standing in contemporary democracies, scholarly interest in political parties continues unabated. But this interest is also proving uneven, with relatively little attention now being given to the study of party systems. More specifically, the level of theoretical interest in party systems remains limited, with almost no substantial innovations being made since the publication of Sartori's classic work of 1976. In this article, we seek to redress some of this neglect by identifying the relevant parameters that can be used in the definition of party systems and, possibly, in the explanation of party system change. We then go on to look at the minimum defining characteristics of a system of parties (as opposed to a set of parties) before finally arguing that party systems are best understood as multidimensional phenomena in which we identify and discuss the implications of three types of division -vertical, horizontal and functional.KEY WORDS Ⅲ electoral arena Ⅲ governmental arena Ⅲ parliamentary arena Ⅲ party systems PA R T Y P O L I T I C S

Sistema de partidos, fragmentación de la competencia y tasas de reforma estatal. Una aproximación ilustrativa desde el caso argentino

“…La lectura de una escisión vertical del sistema de partidos implica la existencia de electorados segmentados y generalmente el sistema de partidos está deter-(11) En el camino de este artículo damos por resueltas dos cuestiones, no necesariamente obvias, pero que encuentran amplio sustento en la bibliografía: primero, estudiar los partidos políticos y sus sistemas es relevante para explicar el desempeño gubernamental -al menos en lo que respecta a innovación de políticas públicas Lijphart (1994), Schattschneider (1942), solo por nombrar algunos de los más importantes-; segundo, es correcto el método de contar partidos como forma de caracterizar sistemas (Blondel, 1969;Sartori, 2000;Lijphart, 2000;Bardi y Mair, 2008;Blau, 2008, entre otros).…”

Party system closure and openness

“…Alliances can be built also on parliamentary, electoral, regional, international or policymaking levels (Bardi and Mair 2008;Smith 1990: 165;etc.). But there are good reasons to focus on the national governmental coalitions.…”

Measuring Party System Change: A Systems Perspective

“…It was a landmark contribution to systems theorizing about parties. Sartori's typology, which captures how parties can interact in democratic and non-democratic settings, remains widely used (see e.g., Bardi and Mair, 2008;Mair, 1997;Ware, 1995;Wolinetz, 2006). Furthermore, the value of the framework for understanding party system change is well-established.…”

“…One approach followed Duverger (1954) and Sartori (2005Sartori ( [1976) by treating party systems as types and examined the effects of different types on governance outcomes. The use of types captures the theorization of party systems as proper systems, that is, as distinct entities with system-level, or emergent, properties (Bardi and Mair, 2008;Collier and Adcock, 1999;Sartori, 2005). 'The concept of system is meaningless ', Sartori (2005, p. 39) confirms, 'unless the system displays properties that do not belong to a separate consideration of its component elements', namely 'the parties'.…”