Political Parties

       Blondel

"Types of Party System"

There are 6 factors to keep in mind when exploring party systems worldwide:

1)  the number of parties;

2)  their strength;

3)  their place on the ideological spectrum;

4)  the nature of their support;

5)  their organizational structure; and

6)  their type of leadership

Blondel argues that the last 3 can be eliminated for western liberal democracies since western parties are deemed to be of the "legitimate mass type" and thus all have support, similar organizational structures and regularized systems of leadership selection.  

If you take factors  1 and 2 together, you get 4 different types of party systems in western liberal democracies:

A)  purely 2 party  

(US/UK/Austria/ AUS/NZ)

two parties who share virtually all of the vote

% difference between the two is small

B)  2 1/2 party systems  

(GER/  CAN/ BEL/ IRE)

two large parties and a significant 3rd party

% difference between the two large parties is larger than in A  

more variation in any election

C)  Multiparty System with one dominant party 

(DEN/ NOR/ SWE/ ICE/ IT)

one party generally gains at least 40% of vote 

that is about twice as much as its nearest competitor

D) genuine multiparty system  

(NETH/ SWI/ FR/ FIN)

no dominant party

generally three or more parties 

any party can be dominant at a particular election time

usually cannot rule by themselves--  must form a coalition

Answer is NOT NECESSARILY !!!

They have different political systems--

with different electoral systems ---

different political cultures   !!!

Thus we need to look from a comparative perspective  !!

You'll see sociological and institutional factors need to be considered !!