A growing impact of new parties: Myth or reality? Party system innovation in Western Europe after 1945
Abstract
Despite the large body of literature on the emergence and success of new political parties in Western Europe, few, if any, attention has been paid to investigate new parties from a systemic perspective, therefore exploring their potential effects on party systems. This article focuses on party system innovation (PSInn), defined as the aggregate level of ‘newness’ recorded in a party system at a given election. After having reviewed the extant literature on the topic, the article discusses what a new party is and provides a new index to measure PSInn. The article analyses the evolution of PSInn across 324 elections held in 19 West European countries from 1945 to 2015 and its cumulative effects over time. Although in most countries the party landscape today is still very similar to the one appearing after World War II, data offer clear evidence of a sharp increase of innovation in the last few years.
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Biographies
Vincenzo Emanuele is a postdoctoral fellow in political science at LUISS Guido Carli in Rome where he also teaches Italian Political System. He is a member of CISE (Italian Centre for Electoral Studies) and of ITANES (Italian National Election Studies). He has published articles on Party Politics, Regional and Federal Studies, Journal of Contemporary European Research, Italian Political Science Review and Contemporary Italian Politics. He is an author of several book chapters focusing on party systems, voting behaviour, Italian and European politics.
Alessandro Chiaramonte is a professor of political science at the University of Florence. He is a founding member of CISE (Italian Centre for Electoral Studies). He is an author or editor of several books on elections, electoral systems and Italian politics. He has published articles on West European Politics, Party Politics, South European Society and Politics as well as on the main Italian Political Science journals.
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Article first published online: November 21, 2016
Issue published: September 2018
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