Party Development in the Old World: And in the New

Abstract

This chapter discusses how well our understanding of political parties, based on the knowledge and models of political parties in established democracies, can help us to understand political parties in new democracies. Armed with concepts and models from the party literature, party scholars have tried to make sense of the vastly expanded universe of parties in the wake of the third wave of democratization. Are parties and party systems in newer democracies very different from parties in established democracies? And if so, are there commonalities between parties in newer democracies? This chapter revisits the debate on parties and democracy while discussing three related topics (typologies, functions, and contrasts of parties between old and new democracies) within the study of political parties to discuss the extent to which our understanding of political parties in established democracies is adequate when applied to new democracies.