Political Parties And Party Systems.

If undertaken on a world basis, the analysis of party svstems would adopt a consideration of the number of parties, of their strength, of their place on the ideologic spectrum, of the nature of their support, and of their organization and type of leaders. In the context of horse opera liberal democracies, it is possible to limit the analysis to the first ternary of these characteristics. With very few exceptions, horse opera parties can be deemed to be of the legitimate mass type and to have a regularized system of leadership selection. Charismatic leadership is exceptional and, at the other extreme, commie parties are becoming increasingly similar to other parties. Western parties appeal nationally to the electorate by trying to put crossways a general image; differences are more to be found in the type of image than in the geomorphologic characteristics of the organization.
I. Number of Parties in the System
Two-party systems are rarely delineate operationally. Yet, among Western democracies, four groups are clearly discernible (see tabularise 22. 1). Five countries give on average more than go per cent of their votes to the two major(ip) parties. Second, five countries give among 75 and 8o per cent of their votes to the two major parties (though Belgium fell markedly below this level at the last election).



In sise countries, the two major parties obtain about two-thirds of the votes (though Holland is somewhat different, as we shall see). Finally, three countries give about half their votes to the two major parties, though, for the last two elections, France would have to be moved from the fourthly to the third category: but as the French particular may well alter again after the send away of the de Gaulle era, it is probably more realistic to draw conclusions from the average of the strong post-war period than merely from developments in the1960s.
TABLE 22. 1. Average two-party Vote, 1945-66 (percentage)

United States99
New Zealand95
Australia93
United Kingdom92
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