Measuring Party System Change: A Systems Perspective

Arbeitspapier

The term ‘party system’, explained Giovanni Sartori, refers to the pattern of interactions among major parties. That pattern can be represented as a type and treated as a proper unit of analysis. When ‘party system’ is defined in this way, it becomes clear that the scholarship lacks a direct measure of ‘party system change’. The Sartori approach to party system change is not the only legitimate way to understand this concept, but it does target an undoubtedly important feature of political systems—namely, the stability of major-party interactions. This article develops a new indicator, the index of fluidity, which measures the extent of such stability. Applying the index to Africa, we show there is significant cross-national variation in fluidity and weak correlation between fluidity and (Pedersen) volatility.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: AGDI Working Paper ; No. WP/17/048

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact ; Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior ; Public Economics: General ; Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government ; Public Economics: Miscellaneous Issues: Other ; Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth ; Economic Development: General ; Institutions and Growth ; Economywide Country Studies: Africa
• Subject: party systems ; party system change ; Africa ; Sartori typology ; fluidity

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Nwokora, Zim ; Pelizzo, Riccardo
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): African Governance and Development Institute (AGDI)
• (where): Yaoundé
• (when): 2017

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/173654
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:41 AM CET