Abstract
This chapter critically reviews and discusses the current state of the art in the literature about party system institutionalization and provides a reconceptualization that is devoted to distinguishing this concept from the broader—and often misused—concept of party system change. Following this conceptual clarification, the chapter proposes an original theoretical framework of party system institutionalization based on three constituent dimensions: (1) the (in)stability of the pattern of interparty competition, (2) the (un)predictability of the same pattern of interactions, and (3) the occurrence of 1 and 2 over time, namely, its nature as a process. Furthermore, the chapter recognizes that party system institutionalization needs to be analyzed in different (electoral, parliamentary, governmental) arenas, namely, wherever interparty competition can be detected.
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Notes
- 1.
It is worth reflecting on the words of Mainwaring that across most continents ‘institutionalized democratic party systems are the exception rather than the norm’ (2016, 693) and that in many areas, from the 1980s until this decade, there is more movement towards party system deinstitutionalization and party collapse than towards institutionalization.
- 2.
For an in-depth review of the literature on party system institutionalization see also Casal Bértoa (2018). We share his idea that ‘there is very little agreement on what [party system institutionalization] actually is or how it should be measured’ (2018, 61). Furthermore, some scholars developed their theories of party system institutionalization without providing any means of operationalizing them. They are excluded from this literature review exactly for this reason.
- 3.
Note that this book, and this chapter particularly, is about party system institutionalization, not about party institutionalization. While these two concepts may partially overlap and may be theoretically linked, it is advisable to distinguish between them because they are ‘neither the same thing nor necessarily and always mutually compatible’ (Randall & Svåsand, 2002, 6). Thus, in our references to the extant literature, we will be focusing upon the main contributions related directly to party system institutionalization only.
- 4.
Drawing upon Mainwaring and Scully’s conceptualization, Boudon (2000) characterizes a de-institutionalized (inchoate) party system by high electoral volatility, by parties suddenly surging in popularity and others declining precipitously from one election to the next, by citizens voting for candidates rather than parties, but also questioning the legitimacy of the electoral process and results, by parties that are largely dependent upon their leaders and therefore lacking organizational autonomy, and by a strong dissatisfaction towards parties.
- 5.
See also Casal Bértoa and Mair (2012). In other words, a party system is considered institutionalized ‘only when parties cooperate, collaborate and colligate in a standardized and structured way presenting voters with clearly stable political alliances and, therefore, predictable governmental alternatives’ (Casal Bértoa, 2018, 68).
- 6.
However, Casal-Bértoa and Mair recognize that the competition for government ‘while arguably constituting the core of any party system, remains just one of many arenas in which parties’ interactions occur’ (2012, 103).
- 7.
In order to capture these indicators, the authors rely on data from the Varieties of Democracy Project (Coppedge et al., 2020). Moreover, measures of party system stability and electoral participation are included in the operational definition of party system institutionalization.
- 8.
An implicit link between the two analytical perspectives—that on party system institutionalization and that on party system change—can be found in the work of Carreras et al. (2015) on Latin America.
- 9.
Similarly, in a recent contribution, Mainwaring et al. (2018, 19) state that ‘The institutionalization of a party system is a process in which the stability of patterns of electoral competition increases. The repetition of some patterns enables actors to form expectations about likely future interactions’.
- 10.
In Mair’s words ‘Predictability then becomes a surrogate of structuration: the more predictable a party system is, the more it is a system as such, and hence the more institutionalized it has become’ (2001, 38).
- 11.
On this point, see our discussion in Chapter 3 about the recent scholarly debate on the need to disentangle electoral volatility, in order to isolate the volatility component that is detrimental for party system institutionalization (Birch, 2003; Chiaramonte & Emanuele, 2017; Lago & Torcal, 2020; Mainwaring et al., 2017; Powell & Tucker, 2014; Sanchez, 2009).
- 12.
As a process, party system institutionalization is not something to be taken for granted since it can undergo trend reversals.
- 13.
The semantic equivalence between the concepts of party system (de-)institutionalization on one side and party or electoral de-alignment or realignment (Dalton et al., 1984) on the other side should also be rejected. The latter concepts, like those of critical election and secular realignment, do not necessarily imply the occurrence of high party system regeneration and its recurrence over time (which instead are necessary conditions for party system de-institutionalization), but only the presence of relevant vote shift among parties within a given system.
- 14.
According to Sartori’s much-cited definition, a party system is ‘the system of interactions resulting from inter-party competition’ (1976, 44). It is precisely the presence of these interactions that makes the system and allows distinction between the latter and a simple set of parties.
- 15.
See also Chapter 5 on this point.
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Chiaramonte, A., Emanuele, V. (2022). Theoretical Background. In: The Deinstitutionalization of Western European Party Systems. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97978-2_2
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