Political parties in new and established democracies : explaining party pluralism, party unity and party death

Abstract

This dissertation is comprised of three distinct but related research papers which seek to contribute to our understanding of institutional development of legislative parties and party systems in new and established democracies. On a macro scale, institutionalization in a competitive political environment is both a process and a product of the complex interaction between a variety of structural conditions emergent from and shaped by voter and elite choices. Each of the three papers addresses a different but crucial aspect of that process: party pluralism in new democracies; party unity at the elite level; and electoral death of parties in parliament.