Abstract
The crucial difference between the political party and other kinds of organised group lies in its relationship to the political system as a whole. Whereas the aim of interest groups is to influence the state, the political party seeks to occupy the decisive positions of authority within it. Thus the defining characteristics of a political party are:
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1.
A conscious aim (realistic or not) to capture decision-making power, alone or in coalition
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2.
The pursuit of popular support through elections
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3.
A permanent organisation.
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Key reading
Duverger, M. (1964) Political Parties (London: Methuen). Despite outdated empirical data, a good introduction to the classification of parties.
Lipset, S. and Rokkan, S. (1967) Party Systems and Voter Alignments, (New York: Free Press). The seminal work on the development of European party systems.
Mair, P. (1990) The West European Party System (Oxford: Oxford University Press). A wide-ranging analysis of parties and party systems in Western Europe.
Randall, V. (ed.) (1988) Political Parties in the Third World (London: Sage). Case studies of party systems from all areas of the third world.
White, S., Gardner, J., Schöpflin, G, and Saich, T. (1990) Communist and Postcommunist Political Systems: An Introduction, 3rd edn, (London: Macmillan). Chapter 4 provides an excellent introduction both to the structure of ruling communist parties, and to the origins of parties in the postcommunist second world.
Copyright information
© 1992 Rod Hague, Martin Harrop and Shaun Breslin
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Hague, R., Harrop, M., Breslin, S. (1992). Political Parties. In: Comparative Government and Politics. Comparative Government and Politics. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22276-6_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-22276-6_10
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-55820-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-22276-6
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