Political party#Partisan style

Political parties are collective entities and activities that organize competitions for political offices.{{rp|3}} The members of a political party contest elections under a shared label. In a narrow definition, a political party can be thought of as just the group of candidates who run for office under a party label.{{rp|3}} In a broader definition, political parties are the entire apparatus that supports the election of a group of candidates, including voters and volunteers who identify with a particular political party, the official party organizations that support the election of that party's candidates, and legislators in the government who are affiliated with the party.{{cite journal |author1=Sarah F. Anzia |author2=Olivia M. Meeks |title=Political Parties and Policy Demanders in Local Elections |journal=University of Maryland-Hewlett Foundation Conference on Parties, Polarization and Policy Demanders |date=May 2016 |url=https://gspp.berkeley.edu/assets/uploads/research/pdf/Anzia_Meeks_Parties_Local_Elections_5_27_16.pdf |access-date=14 February 2021 |archive-date=8 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201008034336/https://gspp.berkeley.edu/assets/uploads/research/pdf/Anzia_Meeks_Parties_Local_Elections_5_27_16.pdf |url-status=live }} In many countries, the notion of a political party is defined in law, and governments may specify requirements for an organization to legally qualify as a political party.{{cite journal |first=Dan |last=Avnon |title=Parties laws in democratic systems of government |journal=The Journal of Legislative Studies |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=283–300 |date=16 November 2007 |doi=10.1080/13572339508420429}}

Political parties are distinguished from other political groups or clubs, such as parliamentary groups, because only presidents have control over the political foundations of the party and also they include political factions, or advocacy groups, mostly by the fact that a party is focused on electing candidates, whereas a parliamentary group is a group of political parties, a political faction is a subgroup within a political party, and an advocacy group is focused on advancing a policy agenda.{{cite book |author1=John Anthony Maltese |author2=Joseph A. Pika |author3=W. Phillips Shively |year= 2020 |title=American democracy in context |publisher=Sage |page=182 |isbn=978-1544345222}} This is related to other features that sometimes distinguish parties from other political organizations, including a larger membership, greater stability over time, and a deeper connection to the electorate.{{cite journal | last1 = Belloni | first1 = Frank P. | last2 = Beller | first2 = Dennis C. | title = The Study of Party Factions as Competitive Political Organizations | journal = The Western Political Quarterly | volume = 29 | number = 4 | pages = 531–549 | year = 1976 | doi = 10.1177/106591297602900405| s2cid = 144697443 }}

The idea of people forming large groups or factions to advocate for their shared interests is ancient. Plato mentions the political factions of Classical Athens in the Republic,{{cite book | last=Plato |page=462 | title = The Republic | publisher = Macmillan and Co, Ltd. | year = 1935 }} and Aristotle discusses the tendency of different types of government to produce factions in the Politics.{{cite book | last=Aristotle | title = The Politics | publisher = The University of Chicago Press | year = 1984 | page = 135 }} Certain ancient disputes were also factional, like the Nika riots between two chariot racing factions at the Hippodrome of Constantinople. A few instances of recorded political groups or factions in history included the late Roman Republic's Populares and Optimates factions as well as the Dutch Republic's Orangists and the Staatsgezinde. However, modern political parties are considered to have emerged around the end of the 18th century; they are usually considered to have first appeared in Europe and the United States of America, with the United Kingdom's Conservative Party and the Democratic Party of the United States both frequently called the world's "oldest continuous political party".{{cite journal | last = Metcalf | first = Michael F. | title = The first "modern" party system? Political parties, Sweden's Age of liberty and the historians | journal = Scandinavian Journal of History | volume = 2 | issue = 1–4 | pages = 265–287 | year = 1977| doi = 10.1080/03468757708578923 }}{{cite book | last1=Chhibber | first1=Pradeep K. | last2 = Kollman | first2 = Ken | title = The formation of national party systems: Federalism and party competition in Canada, Great Britain, India, and the United States | publisher = Princeton University Press | year = 2004 }}{{cite news | last = Dirr | first = Alison | date = 24 October 2016 | title = Is the Democratic Party the oldest continuous political party in the world? | url = https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2016/oct/24/tim-kaine/democratic-party-oldest-continuous-political-party/ | work = Politifact Wisconsin | access-date = 30 September 2019 | archive-date = 30 September 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190930213349/https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2016/oct/24/tim-kaine/democratic-party-oldest-continuous-political-party/ | url-status = live }}{{Cite book|last=Stanek|first=Wojciech|title=Konfederacje a ewolucja mechanizmów walki politycznej w Rzeczypospolitej XVIII wieku|publisher=Interpress|year=1996|location=Olsztyn|pages=135–136}}

Before the development of mass political parties, elections typically featured a much lower level of competition, had small enough polities that direct decision-making was feasible, and held elections that were dominated by individual networks or cliques that could independently propel a candidate to victory in an election.{{cite book |editor1=Carles Boix |editor2=Susan C. Stokes |author=Carles Boix |date= 2009 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Politics |chapter=The Emergence of Parties and Party Systems |pages=499–521 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199566020.003.0021 |isbn=978-0199566020}}{{rp|510}}

File:A-Block-for-the-Wigs-Gillray.jpeg caricatured Fox's return to power in a coalition with North. George III is the blockhead in the centre.]]

Some scholars argue that the first modern political parties developed in early modern Britain in the 17th century, after the Exclusion Crisis and the Glorious Revolution.{{cite book | last=Jones | first=J. R. | title = The First Whigs. The Politics of the Exclusion Crisis. 1678–1683 | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1961}}{{rp|4}} The Whig faction originally organized itself around support for Protestant constitutional monarchy as opposed to absolute rule, whereas the conservative Tory faction (originally the Royalist or Cavalier faction of the English Civil War) supported a strong monarchy, and these two groups structured disputes in the politics of the United Kingdom throughout the 18th century{{rp|4}}{{cite encyclopedia |last=Hamowy |first=Ronald |title=Whiggism |author-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |year=2008 |publisher=Sage; Cato Institute |location=Thousand Oaks, CA |isbn=978-1-4129-6580-4 |oclc=750831024 |lccn=2008009151 |pages=542–543 |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n328 |access-date=4 December 2016 |archive-date=30 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930100756/https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC%2F |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} The Rockingham Whigs have been identified as the first modern political party, because they retained a coherent party label and motivating principles even while out of power.{{cite web |url=http://www.jessenorman.com/2013/09/conhome-op-ed-the-usa-radical-conservatism-and-edmund-burke.html |title=ConHome op-ed: the USA, Radical Conservatism and Edmund Burke |access-date=19 October 2013 |archive-date=20 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020123727/http://www.jessenorman.com/2013/09/conhome-op-ed-the-usa-radical-conservatism-and-edmund-burke.html |url-status=live |date=Sep 2, 2013 |website=Jesse Norman}}

At the end of the century, the United States also developed a party system, called the First Party System. Although the framers of the 1787 United States Constitution did not all anticipate that American political disputes would be primarily organized around political parties, political controversies in the early 1790s over the extent of federal government powers saw the emergence of two proto-political parties: the Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party.{{cite book | last = Hofstadter | first = Richard | title = The Idea of a Party System: The Rise of Legitimate Opposition in the United States, 1780–1840 |publisher = University of California Press |page=ix | year = 1970}}{{cite book | editor = William Nisbet Chambers | title = The first party system | url = https://archive.org/details/firstpartysystem00cham | url-access = registration |page=1 | year = 1972| publisher = New York: Wiley | isbn = 978-0471143406 }}

By the early 19th century, a number of countries had developed stable modern party systems. The party system that developed in Sweden has been called the world's first party system, on the basis that previous party systems were not fully stable or institutionalized. In many European countries, including Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and France, political parties organized around a liberal-conservative divide, or around religious disputes.{{rp|510}} The spread of the party model of politics was accelerated by the 1848 Revolutions around Europe.{{Citation |first=Donald F. |last=Busky |title=Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey |place=Westport, Connecticut, US |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. |year=2000 |page=8 |quote=The Frankfurt Declaration of the Socialist International, which almost all social democratic parties are members of, declares the goal of the development of democratic socialism}}

The strength of political parties in the United States waned during the Era of Good Feelings, but shifted and strengthened again by the second half of the 19th century.{{cite journal | last = Minicucci | first = Stephen | title = Internal Improvements and the Union, 1790–1860 | journal = Studies in American Political Development | volume = 18 | issue = 2 | pages = 160–185 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | doi = 10.1017/S0898588X04000094 | year = 2004 | s2cid = 144902648 }}{{cite book |page=465 | last = Kollman | first = Ken | title = The American political system | publisher = W. W. Norton and Company | year = 2012}} This was not the only country in which the strength of political parties had substantially increased by the end of the century; for example, around this time the Irish political leader Charles Stewart Parnell implemented several methods and structures like party discipline that would come to be associated with strong grassroots political parties.{{cite journal | last = Jordan | first = Donald | title = John O'Connor Power, Charles Stewart Parnell and the Centralization of Popular Politics in Ireland | journal = Irish Historical Studies | volume = 25 | issue = 97 | pages = 46–66 | year = 1986 | doi = 10.1017/S0021121400025335 | s2cid = 156076896 }}

At the beginning of the 20th century in Europe, the liberal–conservative divide that characterized most party systems was disrupted by the emergence of socialist parties, which attracted the support of organized trade unions.{{rp|511}}

During the wave of decolonization in the mid-20th century, many newly sovereign countries outside of Europe and North America developed party systems that often emerged from their movements for independence.{{cite web |url=https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/what-can-be-done-about-the-problem-political-parties |title=What Can Be Done About the Problem of Political Parties? |publisher=Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars |first=Patrick |last=Liddiard |access-date=14 February 2021 |archive-date=15 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215055924/https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/what-can-be-done-about-the-problem-political-parties |url-status=live }}{{cite book |first=Michele Penner |last=Angrist |year=2006 |title=Party Building in the Modern Middle East |chapter=1 |publisher=University of Washington Press |pages=31–54 |isbn=978-0295986463}} For example, a system of political parties arose out of factions in the Indian independence movement, and was strengthened and stabilized by the policies of Indira Gandhi in the 1970s.{{rp|165}} The formation of the Indian National Congress, which developed in the late 19th century as a pro-independence faction in British India and immediately became a major political party after Indian independence, foreshadowed the dynamic in many newly independent countries; for example, the Uganda National Congress was a pro-independence party and the first political party in Uganda, and its name was chosen as an homage to the Indian National Congress.{{cite journal |journal=Conference on Constitutalism and Multiparty Governance in Uganda |first=Nathan |last=Byamukama |date=October 2003 |title=Formation and Impact of Political Parties in 1950s up to Independence (1962): Lessons for Democracy |page=7 |url=https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/bitstream/handle/20.500.12413/4825/byamukama-mak-res.pdf?sequence=1 |access-date=14 February 2021}}

As broader suffrage rights and eventually universal suffrage slowly spread throughout democracies, political parties expanded dramatically, and only then did a vision develop of political parties as intermediaries between the full public and the government.{{cite journal |first1=J. Kevin |last1=Corder |first2=Christina |last2=Wolbrecht |author-link2= Christina Wolbrecht |title=Political Context and the Turnout of New Women Voters after Suffrage |journal=The Journal of Politics |volume=68 |issue=1 |pages=34–49 |year=2006 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-2508.2006.00367.x|s2cid=54176570 }}

Political parties are a nearly ubiquitous feature of modern countries.{{cite journal|doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-041916-020727| doi-access=free|title=The Political Theory of Parties and Partisanship: Catching up|year=2020|last1=Muirhead|first1=Russell|last2=Rosenblum|first2=Nancy L.|journal=Annual Review of Political Science|volume=23|pages=95–110}} Nearly all democratic countries have strong political parties, and many political scientists consider countries with fewer than two parties to necessarily be autocratic.{{cite book | last1=Przeworski | first1=Adam | last2=Alvarez | first2 =Michael E. | last3 = Cheibub | first3 = Jose Antonio | last4 = Limongi | first4 = Fernando | title = Democracy and development: Political institutions and well-being in the world, 1950–1990 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 2000 | page = 20 }}{{cite journal | last1 = Boix | first1 = Carles | last2 = Miller | first2 = Michael | last3 = Rosato | first3 = Sebastian | s2cid = 45833659 | title = A complete data set of political regimes, 1800–2007 | journal = Comparative Political Studies | volume = 46 | issue = 12 | pages = 1523–1554 | year = 2013| doi = 10.1177/0010414012463905 }}{{cite journal | last = Svolik | first = Milan | title = Authoritarian reversals and democratic consolidation | journal = American Political Science Review | volume = 102 | issue = 2 | pages = 153–168 | year = 2008| doi = 10.1017/S0003055408080143 | s2cid = 34430604 }} However, these sources allow that a country with multiple competitive parties is not necessarily democratic, and the politics of many autocratic countries are organized around one dominant political party.{{cite journal | last1 = Knutsen | first1 = Carl Henrik | last2 = Nygård | first2 = Håvard Mokleiv | last3 = Wig | first3 = Tore | title = Autocratic elections: Stabilizing tool or force for change? | journal = World Politics | volume = 69 | issue = 1 | pages = 98–143 | year = 2017| doi = 10.1017/S0043887116000149 | doi-access = free | hdl = 10852/59622 | hdl-access = free }} The ubiquity and strength of political parties in nearly every modern country has led researchers to remark that the existence of political parties is almost a law of politics, and to ask why parties appear to be such an essential part of modern states.{{rp|510}} Political scientists have therefore come up with several explanations for why political parties are a nearly universal political phenomenon.{{rp|11}}

{{Main|Cleavage (politics)}}

File:IICCR G005 May 1st rally in Bucharest.jpg can arise out of, or be closely connected to, existing segments of society, such as organizations of workers.]]

One of the core explanations for the existence of political parties is that they arise from pre-existing divisions among people: society is divided in a certain way, and a party is formed to organize that division into the electoral competition. By the 1950s, economists and political scientists had shown that party organizations could take advantage of the distribution of voters' preferences over political issues, adjusting themselves in response to what voters believe in order to become more competitive.{{cite book | last=Downs | first=Anthony | title = An economic theory of democracy | url=https://archive.org/details/economictheoryof0000down |pages=114–142 | url-access=registration | publisher = Harper Collins | year = 1957 }}{{cite journal |first=James |last=Adams |title=Review of Voting for Policy, Not Parties: How Voters Compensate for Power Sharing, by Orit Kedar |journal=Perspectives on Politics |volume=8 |issue=4 |date=December 2010 |pages=1257–1258 |doi=10.1017/S153759271000280X|s2cid=147390789 }} Beginning in the 1960s, academics began identifying the social cleavages in different countries that might have given rise to specific parties, such as religious cleavages in specific countries that may have produced religious parties there.{{cite book | last1=Lipset | first1=Seymour Martin | last2=Rokkan | first2 =Stein | title = Cleavage structures, party systems, and voter alignments: Cross-national perspectives | publisher = New York Free Press | year = 1967 | page = 50 }}{{cite book | last=Ware | first=Alan | title = Political parties and party systems | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1995 | page = 22}}

The theory that parties are produced by social cleavages has drawn several criticisms. Some authors have challenged it on empirical grounds, either finding no evidence for the claim that parties emerge from existing cleavages, or arguing that the claim is not empirically testable.{{cite journal | last1 = Lybeck | first1 = Johan A. | title = Is the Lipset-Rokkan Hypothesis Testable? | journal = Scandinavian Political Studies | volume = 8 | issue = 1–2 | pages = 105–113 | year = 2017| doi = 10.1111/j.1467-9477.1985.tb00314.x }} Others note that while social cleavages might cause political parties to exist, this obscures the opposite effect: that political parties also cause changes in the underlying social cleavages.{{rp|13}} A further objection is that, if the explanation for where parties come from is that they emerge from existing social cleavages, then the theory is an incomplete story of where political parties come from unless it also explains the origins of these social cleavages.{{cite book |page=74 | last=Tilly | first=Charles | title = Coercion, capital, and European states | publisher = Blackwell | year = 1990}}

File:The Ideals of United Australia (cropped).jpg, than to individually judge every single candidate.]]

An alternative explanation for why parties are ubiquitous across the world is that the formation of parties provides compatible incentives for candidates and legislators. For example, the existence of political parties might coordinate candidates across geographic districts, so that a candidate in one electoral district has an incentive to assist a similar candidate in a different district.{{cite book | last1=Aldrich | first1=John | title = Why Parties?: The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America |chapter=1 | publisher = University of Chicago Press | year = 1995}} Thus, political parties can be mechanisms for preventing candidates with similar goals from acting to each other's detriment when campaigning or governing.{{cite book | last=Hicken | first=Allen | title = Building party systems in developing democracies |page=5 | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 2009}} This might help explain the ubiquity of parties: if a group of candidates form a party and are harming each other less, they may perform better over the long run than unaffiliated politicians, so politicians with party affiliations will out-compete politicians without parties.

Parties can also align their member's incentives when those members are in a legislature.{{cite book | last1=Cox | first1=Gary | last2 = Nubbins | first2 = Mathew | title = Legislative leviathan | publisher = University of California Press |page=10 | year = 1999}} The existence of a party apparatus can help coalitions of electors to agree on ideal policy choices,{{cite journal | last = Tsebelis | first = George | title = Veto players and institutional analysis | journal = Governance | volume = 13 | issue = 4 | pages = 441–474 | year = 2000| doi = 10.1111/0952-1895.00141 }} whereas a legislature of unaffiliated members might never be able to agree on a single best policy choice without some institution constraining their options.{{cite journal | last = McKelvey | first = Richard D. | title = Intransitivities in multidimensional voting bodies | journal = Journal of Economic Theory | volume = 12 | pages = 472–482 | year = 1976| doi = 10.1016/0022-0531(76)90040-5 }}{{cite journal | last1 = Schofield | first1 = Norman | title = Generic instability of majority rule | journal = Review of Economic Studies | volume = 50 | issue = 4 | pages = 695–705 | year = 1983| doi = 10.2307/2297770 | jstor = 2297770 }}

{{Main|Party identification}}

Another prominent explanation for why political parties exist is psychological: parties may be necessary for many individuals to participate in politics because they provide a massively simplifying heuristic, which allows people to make informed choices with much less mental effort than if voters had to consciously evaluate the merits of every candidate individually.{{cite book | last1=Campbell | first1=Angus | last2 = Converse | first2 = Philip | last3 = Miller | first3 = Warren | last4 = Stokes | first4 = Donald |pages=120–146 | title = The American Voter | publisher = University of Chicago Press | year = 1960}} Without political parties, electors would have to individually evaluate every candidate in every election. Parties enable electors to make judgments about just a few groups, and then apply their judgment of the party to its entire slate of candidates. Because it is much easier to become informed about a few parties' platforms than the positions of a multitude of independent candidates, parties reduce the cognitive burden for people to cast informed votes. However, some evidence suggests that over the last several decades, the strength of party identification has been weakening, so this may be a less important function for parties to provide than it was in the past.{{cite book | last1=Dalton | first1=Russell J. | last2 = Wattenberg | first2 = Martin P. |page=3 | title = Parties without partisans: Political change in advanced industrial democracies | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2002}}

Political parties are often structured in similar ways across countries. They typically feature a single party leader, a group of party executives, and a community of party members. Parties in democracies usually select their party leadership in ways that are more open and competitive than parties in autocracies, where the selection of a new party leader is likely to be tightly controlled. In countries with large sub-national regions, particularly federalist countries, there may be regional party leaders and regional party members in addition to the national membership and leadership.{{rp|75}}

File:18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.jpg, where policies may be set and changes can be made to party leadership]]

Parties are typically led by a party leader, who serves as the main representative of the party and often has primary responsibility for overseeing the party's policies and strategies. The leader of the party that controls the government usually becomes the head of government, such as the president or prime minister, and the leaders of other parties explicitly compete to become the head of government.{{cite book |editor=Ludger Helms |page=78 |year=2012 |title=Comparative Political Leadership |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-349-33368-4}} In both presidential democracies and parliamentary democracies, the members of a party frequently have substantial input into the selection of party leaders, for example by voting on party leadership at a party conference.{{cite journal |first=Michael |last=Marsh |title=Introduction: Selecting the party leader |journal=European Journal of Political Research |volume=24 |pages=229–231 |date=October 1993 |issue=3 |doi=10.1111/j.1475-6765.1993.tb00378.x}}{{cite journal |author1=William Cross |author2=André Blais |title=Who selects the party leader? |journal=Party Politics |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=127–150 |date=26 January 2011 |doi=10.1177/1354068810382935|s2cid=144582117 }} Because the leader of a major party is a powerful and visible person, many party leaders are well-known career politicians.{{cite journal |first=Stephen |last=Barber |title=Arise, Careerless Politician: The Rise of the Professional Party Leader |journal=Politics |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=23–31 |date=17 September 2013 |doi=10.1111/1467-9256.12030|s2cid=143270021 |url=http://researchopen.lsbu.ac.uk/1237/1/Arise%20Careerless%20final%20version.docx }} Party leaders can be sufficiently prominent that they affect voters' perceptions of the entire party,{{cite journal |first=Diego |last=Garzia |title=Party and Leader Effects in Parliamentary Elections: Towards a Reassessment |journal=Politics |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=175–185 |date=3 September 2012 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9256.2012.01443.x|hdl=1814/23834 |s2cid=55189815 |hdl-access=free }} and some voters decide how to vote in elections partly based on how much they like the leaders of the different parties.{{cite journal |author1=Jean-François Daoust |author2=André Blais |author3=Gabrielle Péloquin-Skulski |title=What do voters do when they prefer a leader from another party? |journal=Party Politics |volume=50 |pages=1103–1109 |date=29 April 2019 |issue=2 |doi=10.1177/1354068819845100|s2cid=155675264 }}

The number of people involved in choosing party leaders varies widely across parties and across countries. On one extreme, party leaders might be selected from the entire electorate; on the opposite extreme, they might be selected by just one individual.{{cite journal |first=Ofer |last=Kenig |title=Classifying Party Leaders' Selection Methods in Parliamentary Democracies |journal=Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=433–447 |date=30 October 2009 |doi=10.1080/17457280903275261|s2cid=146321598 }} Selection by a smaller group can be a feature of party leadership transitions in more autocratic countries, where the existence of political parties may be severely constrained to only one legal political party, or only one competitive party. Some of these parties, like the Chinese Communist Party, have rigid methods for selecting the next party leader, which involves selection by other party members.{{cite journal |author1=Li Cheng |author2=Lynn White |title=The Fifteenth Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party: Full-Fledged Technocratic Leadership with Partial Control by Jiang Zemin |journal=Asian Survey |volume=38 |issue=3 |pages=231–264 |year=1998 |doi=10.2307/2645427|jstor=2645427 }} A small number of single-party states have hereditary succession, where party leadership is inherited by the child of an outgoing party leader.{{cite journal |first=Jason |last=Brownlee |title=Hereditary Succession in Modern Autocracies |journal=World Politics |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=595–628 |date=July 2007|doi=10.1353/wp.2008.0002|s2cid=154483430 }} Autocratic parties use more restrictive selection methods to avoid having major shifts in the regime as a result of successions.{{cite journal |first=Ludger |last=Helms |title=Leadership succession in politics: The democracy/autocracy divide revisited |journal=The British Journal of Politics and International Relations |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=328–346 |date=11 March 2020 |doi=10.1177/1369148120908528|doi-access=free }}

In both democratic and non-democratic countries, the party leader is often the foremost member of a larger party leadership. A party executive will commonly include administrative positions, like a party secretary and a party chair, who may be different people from the party leader.{{cite book |first=Paul Geoffrey |last=Lewis |year= 1989 |title=Political Authority and Party Secretaries in Poland, 1975–1986 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=29–51 |isbn=978-0521363693}}{{cite book |first=John D. |last=Martz |year=1966 |title=Accion Democratica: Evolution of a Modern Political Party in Venezuela |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=155 |chapter=The Party Organization: Structural Framework |isbn=978-1400875870}} These executive organizations may serve to constrain the party leader, especially if that leader is an autocrat.{{cite journal |first=Susan |last=Trevaskes |title=A Law Unto Itself: Chinese Communist Party Leadership and Yifa zhiguo in the Xi Era |journal=Modern China |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=347–373 |date=16 April 2018 |doi=10.1177/0097700418770176|s2cid=149719307 }}{{cite journal |first=Alex M. |last=Kroeger |title=Dominant Party Rule, Elections, and Cabinet Instability in African Autocracies |journal=British Journal of Political Science |volume=50 |issue=1 |pages=79–101 |date=9 March 2018 |doi=10.1017/S0007123417000497|s2cid=158190033 }} It is common for political parties to conduct major leadership decisions, like selecting a party executive and setting their policy goals, during regular party conferences.{{cite book |editor1=Jean-Benoit Pilet |editor2=William Cross |page=13 |year= 2014 |title=The Selection of Political Party Leaders in Contemporary Parliamentary Democracies: A Comparative Study |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1317929451 }}

File:National Woman's Party Members Lafayette Park August 6, 1918.jpg in 1918]]

Much as party leaders who are not in power are usually at least nominally competing to become the head of government, the entire party executive may be competing for various positions in the government. For example, in Westminster systems, the largest party that is out of power will form the Official Opposition in parliament, and select a shadow cabinet which (among other functions) provides a signal about which members of the party would hold which positions in the government if the party were to win an election.{{cite journal |author1=Andrew C. Eggers |author2=Arthur Spirling |title=The Shadow Cabinet in Westminster Systems: Modeling Opposition Agenda Setting in the House of Commons, 1832–1915 |journal=British Journal of Political Science |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=343–367 |date=11 April 2016 |doi=10.1017/S0007123416000016|s2cid=155635327 |url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:acdca5ba-0883-413e-89c3-52083a9f5ecd }}

Citizens in a democracy will often affiliate with a specific political party. Party membership may include paying dues, an agreement not to affiliate with multiple parties at the same time, and sometimes a statement of agreement with the party's policies and platform.{{cite journal |first=Anika |last=Gauja |title=The construction of party membership |journal=European Journal of Political Research |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=232–248 |date=4 December 2014 |doi=10.1111/1475-6765.12078}} In democratic countries, members of political parties often are allowed to participate in elections to choose the party leadership. Party members may form the base of the volunteer activists and donors who support political parties during campaigns.{{cite journal |first=Steven |last=Weldon |title=Downsize My Polity? The Impact of Size on Party Membership and Member Activism |journal=Party Politics |volume=12 |issue=4 |pages=467–481 |date=1 July 2006 |doi=10.1177/1354068806064729|s2cid=145573225 }} The extent of participation in party organizations can be affected by a country's political institutions, with certain electoral systems and party systems encouraging higher party membership.{{cite book |first=Alison F. |last=Smith |year=2020 |title=Political Party Membership in New Democracies |page=2 |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-3030417956}} Since at least the 1980s, membership in large traditional party organizations has been steadily declining across a number of countries, particularly longstanding European democracies.{{cite journal |author1=Peter Mair |author2=Ingrid van Biezen |title=Party Membership in Twenty European Democracies, 1980–2000 |journal=Party Politics |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=5–21 |date=1 January 2001 |doi=10.1177/1354068801007001001|s2cid=143913812 }}

Political scientists have distinguished between different types of political parties that have evolved throughout history. These include elite parties, mass parties, catch-all parties and cartel parties.{{cite book |last=Schumacher |first=Gijs |year=2017 |chapter=The Transformation of Political Parties |editor-last=van Praag |editor-first=Philip |title=Political Science and Changing Politics |location=Amsterdam |publisher=Amsterdam University Press}}{{rp|163–178}} Elite parties were political elites that were concerned with contesting elections and restricted the influence of outsiders, who were only required to assist in election campaigns. Mass parties tried to recruit new members who were a source of party income and were often expected to spread party ideology as well as assist in elections. In the United States, where both major parties were elite parties, the introduction of primaries and other reforms has transformed them so that power is held by activists who compete over influence and nomination of candidates.{{cite book |first=Alan |last=Ware |title=Political parties |pages=65–67}}

Scholars distinguish between strong political parties where decision-making is centralized and top-down on one hand and weak political parties where decision-making is decentralized and the grassroots has considerable power on the other hand.{{Cite book |last=Kernell |first=Georgia |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/inside-parties/63847260B6E70786EFB4B874DABDF11D |title=Inside Parties: How Party Rules Shape Membership and Responsiveness |date=2025 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-009-51465-1 |doi=10.1017/9781009514705}}{{Cite book |last=Rosenbluth |first=Frances McCall |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv6hp3bf |title=Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself |last2=Shapiro |first2=Ian |date=2018 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-23275-2}}

{{main|Elite party}}

An elite party is a type of political party that was dominant in the nineteenth century before the introduction of universal suffrage. The French political scientist Maurice Duverger first distinguished between elite and "mass" parties, founding his distinction on the differences within the organisational structures of these two types.{{cite book |last1=Duverger |first1=Maurice |title=Political Parties: Their Organisation and Activity in the Modern State |date=1964 |publisher=Methuen |location=London |edition=3}}{{rp|60–71}} Elite parties are characterized by minimal and loose organisation, and are financed by fewer larger monetary contributions typically originating from outside the party. Elite parties give little priority to expanding the party's membership base, and its leaders are its only members.{{cite journal |last1=Katz |first1=Richard S. |last2=Mair |first2=Peter |title=Changing Models of Party Organisation and Party Democracy: The Emergence of the Cartel Party |journal=Party Politics |date=1995 |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=20|doi=10.1177/1354068895001001001 |s2cid=143611762 }}{{rp|165}} The earliest political parties, such as the Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists, are classified as elite parties.{{cite book |last1=Hague |first1=Rod |last2=McCormick |first2=John |last3=Harrop |first3=Martin |title=Comparative Government and Politics, An Introduction |date=2019 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Houndmills |page=271 |edition=11}}

File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F079282-0030, Münster, SPD-Parteitag, Willy Brandt.jpg which was formed to represent German workers.]]

{{Main|Mass politics}}

A mass party is a type of political party that developed around cleavages in society and mobilized the ordinary citizens or 'masses' in the political process. In Europe, the introduction of universal suffrage resulted in the creation of worker's parties that later evolved into mass parties; an example is the German Social Democratic Party.{{rp|165}} These parties represented large groups of citizens who had not previously been represented in political processes, articulating the interests of different groups in society. In contrast to elite parties, mass parties are funded by their members, and rely on and maintain a large membership base. Further, mass parties prioritize the mobilization of voters and are more centralized than elite parties.{{cite journal |last1=Angell |first1=Harold M. |title=Duverger, Epstein and the Problem of the Mass Party: The Case of the Parti Québécois |journal=Canadian Journal of Political Science |date=June 1987 |volume=20 |issue=2 |page=364|doi=10.1017/S0008423900049489 |s2cid=154446570 }}

{{Main|Big tent party}}

The term "catch-all party" was developed by German-American political scientist Otto Kirchheimer to describe the parties that developed in the 1950s and 1960s as a result of changes within the mass parties.{{cite journal |last1=Krouwel |first1=Andre |s2cid=145308222 |title=Otto Kirchheimer and the Catch-All Party |journal=West European Politics |date=2003 |volume=26 |issue=2 |page=24|doi=10.1080/01402380512331341091 |url=https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/2e5dc172-a1b8-40e4-816f-f83dc99ba760 }}{{rp|165}} The term "big tent party" may be used interchangeably. Kirchheimer characterized the shift from the traditional mass parties to catch-all parties as a set of developments including the "drastic reduction of the party's ideological baggage" and the "downgrading of the role of the individual party member".Kirchheimer, Otto (1966). 'The Transformation of Western European Party Systems', in J. LaPalombara and M. Weiner (eds.), Political Parties and Political Development. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, pp. 177–200 [190] {{ISBN?}} By broadening their central ideologies into more open-ended ones, catch-all parties seek to secure the support of a wider section of the population. Further, the role of members is reduced as catch-all parties are financed in part by the state or by donations.{{rp|163–178}} In Europe, the shift of Christian Democratic parties that were organized around religion into broader centre-right parties epitomizes this type.{{cite book |last1=Hague |first1=Rod |last2=McCormick |first2=John |last3=Harrop |first3=Martin |title=Comparative Government and Politics, An Introduction |date=2019 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=Houndmills |page=272 |edition=11}}

{{main|Cartel party theory}}

Cartel parties are a type of political party that emerged post-1970s and are characterized by heavy state financing and the diminished role of ideology as an organizing principle. The cartel party thesis was developed by Richard Katz and Peter Mair, who wrote that political parties have turned into "semi-state agencies",{{cite journal |last1=Katz |first1=Richard S. |last2=Mair |first2=Peter |title=Changing Models of Party Organisation and Party Democracy: The Emergence of the Cartel Party |journal=Party Politics |date=1995 |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=16|doi=10.1177/1354068895001001001 |s2cid=143611762 }} acting on behalf of the state rather than groups in society. The term 'cartel' refers to the way in which prominent parties in government make it difficult for new parties to enter, as such forming a cartel of established parties. As with catch-all parties, the role of members in cartel parties is largely insignificant as parties use the resources of the state to maintain their position within the political system.{{rp|163–178}}

{{See also|Single-issue politics}}

Niche parties are a type of political party that developed on the basis of the emergence of new cleavages and issues in politics, such as immigration and the environment.{{cite journal |last1=Meguid |first1=Bonnie M. |title=Competition Between Unequals: The Role of Mainstream Party Strategy in Niche Party Success |journal=American Political Science Review |date=2005 |volume=99 |issue=3 |pages=347–348|doi=10.1017/S0003055405051701 |s2cid=145304603 }} In contrast to mainstream or catch-all parties, niche parties articulate an often limited set of interests in a way that does not conform to the dominant economic left-right divide in politics, in turn emphasising issues that do not attain prominence within the other parties.{{cite journal |last1=Meyer |first1=Thomas |last2=Miller |first2=Bernhard |title=The niche party concept and its measurement |journal=Party Politics |date=2015 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=259–271 |doi=10.1177/1354068812472582|pmid=28066152 |pmc=5180693 }} Further, niche parties do not respond to changes in public opinion to the extent that mainstream parties do. Examples of niche parties include Green parties and extreme nationalist parties, such as the National Rally in France.{{cite journal |last1=Adams |first1=James |last2=Clark |first2=Michael |last3=Ezrow |first3=Lawrence |last4=Glasgow |first4=Garrett |title=Are Niche Parties Fundamentally Different from Mainstream Parties? The Causes and the Electoral Consequences of Western European Parties' Policy Shifts, 1976–1998 |journal=American Journal of Political Science |date=2006 |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=513–529 |doi=10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00199.x |s2cid=30867881 |url=https://research.vu.nl/ws/files/2180944/191763.pdf |access-date=18 June 2020 |archive-date=6 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806072413/https://research.vu.nl/ws/files/2180944/191763.pdf |url-status=live }} However, over time these parties may grow in size and shed some of their niche qualities as they become larger, a phenonmenon observable among European Green parties during their transformation from radical environmentalist movements to mainstream centre-left parties.

{{main|Entrepreneurial party}}

An Entrepreneurial party is a political party that is centered on a political entrepreneur, and dedicated to the advancement of that person or their policies.{{cite journal |last1=Kosowska-Gąstoł |first1=Beata |last2=Sobolewska-Myślik |first2=Katarzyna |title=New Political Entrepreneurs in Poland |journal=Politologický časopis - Czech Journal of Political Science |date=2017 |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=137–157 |doi=10.5817/PC2017-2-137 |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/84466401.pdf |access-date=17 January 2021 |archive-date=22 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122054222/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/84466401.pdf |url-status=live }} While some definitions of political parties state that a party is an organization that advances a specific set of ideological or policy goals,{{cite web |title=The purpose of political parties |date=3 September 2014 |url=https://www.government.nl/topics/democracy/the-purpose-of-political-parties |publisher=Government of the Netherlands |access-date=14 February 2021 |archive-date=12 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812042506/https://www.government.nl/topics/democracy/the-purpose-of-political-parties |url-status=live }} many political parties are not primarily motivated by ideology or policy, and instead exist to advance the career of a specific political entrepreneur.

{{Main|List of political ideologies}}Political ideologies are one of the major organizing features of political parties, and parties often officially align themselves with specific ideologies. Parties adopt ideologies for a number of reasons. Ideological affiliations for political parties send signals about the types of policies they might pursue if they were in power.{{cite journal |first=Liesbet |last=Hooghe |title=What Drives Euroskepticism? Party–Public Cueing, Ideology and Strategic Opportunity |journal=European Union Politics |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=5–12 |year=2007 |doi=10.1177/1465116507073283 |s2cid=154281437 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1465116507073283 |access-date=30 January 2021}} Ideologies also differentiate parties from one another, so that voters can select the party that advances the policies that they most prefer.{{cite journal |first=Romain |last=Lachat |title=The impact of party polarization on ideological voting |journal=Electoral Studies |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=687–698 |date=December 2008 |doi=10.1016/j.electstud.2008.06.002}} A party may also seek to advance an ideology by convincing voters to adopt its belief system.{{cite journal |first=John E. |last=Roemer |title=The Strategic Role of Party Ideology When Voters are Uncertain About How the Economy Works |journal=The American Political Science Review |volume=88 |issue=2 |pages=327–335 |date=June 1994 |doi=10.2307/2944707|jstor=2944707 |s2cid=145184235 }}

Common ideologies that can form a central part of the identity of a political party include liberalism, conservatism, socialism, communism, anarchism, fascism, feminism, environmentalism, nationalism, fundamentalism,{{cite book |first=Andrew |last=Vincent |year= 2009 |title=Modern Political Ideologies |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |pages=1–22 |isbn=978-1444311051}} Islamism, and multiculturalism.{{cite book |first=Andrew |last=Heywood |year=2017 |title=Political Ideologies: An Introduction |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |pages=1–23 |isbn=978-1137606044}} Liberalism is the ideology that is most closely connected to the history of democracies and is often considered to be the dominant or default ideology of governing parties in much of the contemporary world.{{cite book |first=Michael |last=Freeden |year=1996 |title=Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach |pages=vii–x |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0198275329}} Many of the traditional competitors to liberal parties are conservative parties. Socialist, communist, feminist, anarchist, fascist, and nationalist parties are more recent developments, largely entering political competitions only in the 19th and 20th centuries. Environmentalism, multiculturalism, and certain types of fundamentalism became prominent towards the end of the 20th century.

Parties can sometimes be organized according to their ideology using an economic left–right political spectrum. However, a simple left-right economic axis does not fully capture the variation in party ideologies. Other common axes that are used to compare the ideologies of political parties include ranges from liberal to authoritarian,{{cite journal |author1=Anna Lührmann |author2=Juraj Medzihorsky |author3=Garry Hindle |author4=Staffan I. Lindberg |title=New Global Data on Political Parties: V-Party |journal=V-Dem Briefing Paper |number=9 |pages=1–4 |date=26 October 2020}} from pro-establishment to anti-establishment, and from tolerant and pluralistic (in their behavior while participating in the political arena) to anti-system.{{cite journal |author1=Richard Gunther |author2=Larry Diamond |title=Species of Political Parties: A New Typology |journal=Party Politics |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=167–199 |date=1 March 2003 |doi=10.1177/13540688030092003|s2cid=16407503 }}

Party positions for individual political parties are assessed by different published indices, such as the V-Party Dataset.{{Cite web | url=https://v-dem.net/data/v-party-dataset/ | title=V-Party Dataset | access-date=June 2, 2023 | website = V-Dem Institute }}

Though ideologies are central to a large number of political parties around the world, not all political parties have an organizing ideology, or exist to promote ideological policies. For example, some political parties may be clientelistic or patronage-based organizations, which are largely concerned with distributing goods.{{cite journal |first=Allen |last=Hicken |title=Clientelism |journal=Annual Review of Political Science |volume=14 |pages=289–310 |date=17 March 2011 |doi=10.1146/annurev.polisci.031908.220508|doi-access=free }} Other political parties may be created as tools for the advancement of an individual politician.{{cite book |author1=Catherine E. De Vries |author2=Sara B. Hobolt |year= 2019 |title=Political Entrepreneurs: The Rise of Challenger Parties in Europe |publisher=Princeton University Press |pages=1–38 |isbn=978-0691194752}}{{cite journal |author1=Mark Schneider |author2=Paul Teske |title=Toward A Theory of the Political Entrepreneur: Evidence from Local Government |journal=The American Political Science Review |volume=86 |issue=3 |pages=737–747 |date=September 1992 |doi=10.2307/1964135|jstor=1964135 |s2cid=155041917 }} It is also common, in countries with important social cleavages along ethnic or racial lines, to represent the interests of one ethnic group or another. This may involve a non-ideological attachment to the interests of that group, or may be a commitment based on an ideology like identity politics. While any of these types of parties may be ideological, there are political parties that do not have any organizing ideology.{{cite journal |first=John S. |last=Olanrewaju |title=Political Parties and Poverty of Ideology in Nigeria |journal=Afro Asian Journal of Social Sciences |volume=VI |issue=3 |pages=1–16 |date=28 June 2017}}

{{Main|Party system}}

Political parties are ubiquitous across both democratic and autocratic countries, and there is often very little change in which political parties have a chance of holding power in a country from one election to the next. This makes it possible to think about the political parties in a country as collectively forming one of the country's central political institutions, called a party system. Some basic features of a party system are the number of parties and what sorts of parties are the most successful.{{cite book |first=Sarah |last=Birch |year=2003 |title=Electoral Systems and Political Transformation in Post-Communist Europe |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |pages=99–118 |isbn=978-1-349-43138-0 |doi=10.1057/9781403938763}} These properties are closely connected to other major features of the country's politics, such as how democratic it is, what sorts of restrictions its laws impose on political parties, and what type of electoral systems it uses.{{cite book |editor1=Richard S. Katz |editor2=William Crotty |author1=Scott Mainwaring |author2=Mariano Torcal |chapter=Party System Institutionalization and Party System Theory After the Third Wave of Democratization |year= 2005 |title=Handbook of Party Politics |publisher=Sage Publications |pages=204–227 |isbn=978-0761943143 |doi=10.4135/9781848608047.n19|url=https://figshare.com/articles/online_resource/Party_System_Institutionalization_and_Party_System_Theory_After_the_Third_Wave_of_Democratization/26126164 }} Even in countries where the number of political parties is not officially constrained by law, political institutions affect how many parties are viable. For example, democracies that use a single-member district electoral system tend to have very few parties, whereas countries that use proportional representation tend to have more.{{cite book |first1=Matthew S. |last1=Shugart |first2=Rein |last2=Taagepera |year=2017 |title=Votes from Seats: Logical models of electoral systems |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1108404266}}{{rp|ch. 7}} The number of parties in a country can also be accurately estimated based on the magnitude of a country's electoral districts and the number of seats in its legislature.{{rp|255}}

An informative way to classify the party systems of the world is by how many parties they include. Because some party systems include a large number of parties that have a very low probability of winning elections, it is often useful to think about the effective number of parties (the number of parties weighted by the strength of those parties) rather than the literal number of registered parties.{{Cite journal |last1=Laakso |first1=Markku |last2=Taagepera |first2=Rein |date=1979 |title="Effective" Number of Parties: A Measure with Application to West Europe |journal=Comparative Political Studies |language=en |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=3–27 |doi=10.1177/001041407901200101 |s2cid=143250203 |issn=0010-4140 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/703827nv |access-date=14 February 2021 |archive-date=17 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210317203735/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/703827nv |url-status=live }}

{{Main|Non-partisan democracy}}

File:NorthWest Territories Legislature Plan 2014 19 Members.svg, every member runs and legislates as a political independent with no party affiliation.]]

In a non-partisan system, no political parties exist, or political parties are not a major part of the political system. There are very few countries without political parties.{{cite book |first=E. E. |last=Schattschneider |author-link=Elmer Eric Schattschneider |year=1942 |title=Party Government |publisher=Holt, Rinehart, and Winston |page=1 |isbn=978-1412830508}}

In some non-partisan countries, the formation of parties is explicitly banned by law. The existence of political parties may be banned in autocratic countries in order to prevent a turnover in power. For example, in Saudi Arabia, a ban on political parties has been used as a tool for protecting the monarchy.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/world/middleeast/11briefs-Saudi.html |title=Saudi Arabia: Political Party Formed |work=The New York Times |date=10 February 2011 |access-date=20 January 2021 |archive-date=27 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127224519/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/world/middleeast/11briefs-Saudi.html |url-status=live }} However, parties are also banned in some polities that have long democratic histories, usually in local or regional elections of countries that have strong national party systems.{{cite journal |author1=Brian F. Schaffner |author2=Matthew Streb |author3=Gerald Wright |title=Tearns Without Uniforms: The Nonpartisan Ballot in State and Local Elections |journal=Political Research Quarterly |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=7–30 |date=1 March 2001 |doi=10.1177/106591290105400101|s2cid=17440529 }}{{cite book |first=M. O. |last=Dickerson |year=1992 |title=Whose North?: Political Change, Political Development, and Self-government in the Northwest Territories |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |page=9 |isbn=978-0774804189}}{{cite journal |first=Nancy |last=Northup |title=Local Nonpartisan Elections, Political Parties and the First Amendment |journal=Columbia Law Review |volume=87 |issue=7 |pages=1677–1701 |date=December 1987|doi=10.2307/1122744|jstor=1122744 }}

Political parties may also temporarily cease to exist in countries that have either only been established recently, or that have experienced a major upheaval in their politics and have not yet returned to a stable system of political parties. For example, the United States began as a non-partisan democracy, and it evolved a stable system of political parties over the course of many decades.{{rp|ch.4}} A country's party system may also dissolve and take time to re-form, leaving a period of minimal or no party system, such as in Peru following the regime of Alberto Fujimori.{{cite journal |author1=Steven Levitsky |author2=Maxwell A. Cameron |title=Democracy Without Parties? Political Parties and Regime Change in Fujimori's Peru |journal=Latin American Politics and Society |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=1–33 |date=19 December 2008 |doi=10.1111/j.1548-2456.2003.tb00248.x|s2cid=153626617 }} However, it is also possible{{snd}}albeit rare{{snd}}for countries with no bans on political parties, and which have not experienced a major disruption, to nevertheless have no political parties: there are a small number of pacific island democracies, such as Palau, where political parties are permitted to exist and yet parties are not an important part of national politics.{{cite journal |first=Wouter P. |last=Veenendaal |title=How democracy functions without parties: The Republic of Palau |journal=Party Politics |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=27–36 |year=2013 |doi=10.1177/1354068813509524|s2cid=144651495 }}

{{Main|One-party state}}

In a one-party system, power is held entirely by one political party. When only one political party exists, it may be the result of a ban on the formation of any competing political parties, which is a common feature in authoritarian states. For example, the Communist Party of Cuba is the only permitted political party in Cuba, and is the only party that can hold seats in the legislature.{{cite web |url=https://freedomhouse.org/country/cuba/freedom-world/2020 |title=Freedom in the World 2020: Cuba |publisher=Freedom House |year=2020 |access-date=20 January 2021 |archive-date=29 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129013609/https://freedomhouse.org/country/cuba/freedom-world/2020 |url-status=live }} When only one powerful party is legally permitted to exist, its membership can grow to contain a very large portion of society and it can play substantial roles in civil society that are not necessarily directly related to political governance; one example of this is the Chinese Communist Party.{{Cite web |last=Staff writer |author-link=Staff writer |date=30 June 2015 |title=China's Communist Party membership tops entire population of Germany |url=http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1829407/chinas-communist-party-enlists-million-new-members |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703004249/http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1829407/chinas-communist-party-enlists-million-new-members |archive-date=3 July 2015 |access-date=30 June 2015 |website=South China Morning Post |publisher=SCMP Group}} Bans on competing parties can also ensure that only one party can ever realistically hold power, even without completely outlawing all other political parties. For example, in North Korea, more than one party is officially permitted to exist and even to seat members in the legislature,{{cite book |author1=Cha, Victor |author2=Hwang, Balbina |editor=Worden, Robert |ref=CITEREFChaHwang2009 |title=North Korea: a Country Study |publisher=Federal Research Division. Library of Congress |year=2009 |chapter=Government and Politics |isbn=978-1598044683 |edition=5th |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/northkoreacountr0000unse |page=214}} but laws ensure that the Workers' Party of Korea retains control.{{cite book |first=Walter C. Jr. |last=Clemens |year=2016 |title=North Korea and the World |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |page=5 |isbn=978-0813167466}}

It is also possible for countries with free elections to have only one party that holds power. These cases are sometimes called dominant-party systems or particracies. Scholars have debated whether or not a country that has never experienced a transfer of power from one party to another can nevertheless be considered a democracy.{{rp|23}} There have been periods of government exclusively or entirely by one party in some countries that are often considered to have been democratic, and which had no official legal barriers to the inclusion of other parties in the government; this includes recent periods in Botswana, Japan, Mexico, Senegal, and South Africa.{{rp|24–27}} It can also occur that one political party dominates a sub-national region of a democratic country that has a competitive national party system; one example is the southern United States during much of the 19th and 20th centuries, where the Democratic Party had almost complete control, with the Southern states being functionally one-party regimes, though opposition parties were never prohibited.{{cite book |first=Robert |last=Mickey |year=2015 |title=Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America's Deep South, 1944–1972 |publisher=Princeton University Press |page=18 |isbn=978-0691149639}}

{{Main|Two-party system}}

In several countries, there are only two parties that have a realistic chance of competing to form government.{{cite book |author1=Arend Lijphart |author1-link=Arend Lijphart |author2=Don Aitkin |author2-link=Don Aitkin |year=1994 |title=Electoral Systems and Party Systems: A Study of Twenty-seven Democracies, 1945–1990 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=67 |isbn=978-0198280545}} One current example of a two-party system is the United States, where the national government has for much of the country's history exclusively been controlled by either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party.{{cite web |url=https://theconversation.com/the-two-party-system-is-here-to-stay-132423 |title=The two-party system is here to stay |first=Alexander |last=Cohen |publisher=The Conversation |date=2 March 2020 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=14 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210114220626/https://theconversation.com/the-two-party-system-is-here-to-stay-132423 |url-status=live }} Other examples of countries which have had long periods of two-party dominance include Colombia, Uruguay,{{cite journal |first=Michael |last=Coppedge |title=The Dynamic Diversity of Latin American Party Systems |journal=Party Politics |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=547–568 |date=1 October 1998 |doi=10.1177/1354068898004004007|s2cid=3276149 }} Malta,{{cite journal |first=Michelle |last=Cini |title=A Divided Nation: Polarization and the Two-Party System in Malta |journal=South European Society and Politics |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=6–23 |date=2 December 2009 |doi=10.1080/714004966|s2cid=154269904 }} and Ghana.{{cite journal |author1=Minion K. C. Morrison |author1-link=Minion K. C. Morrison |author2=Jae Woo Hong |title=Ghana's political parties: How ethno/regional variations sustain the national two-party system |journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=623–647 |date=December 2006 |doi=10.1017/S0022278X06002114|s2cid=154384854 }} Two-party systems are not limited to democracies; they may be present in authoritarian regimes as well. Competition between two parties has occurred in historical autocratic regimes in countries including Brazil{{cite journal |author1=James Loxton |author2=Timothy Power |title=Introducing authoritarian diasporas: causes and consequences of authoritarian elite dispersion |journal=Democratization |volume=28 |issue=3 |date=2 June 2020 |pages=465–483 |doi=10.1080/13510347.2020.1866553|s2cid=232245480 |url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:316c1c11-6113-4b39-97f6-b7a3d35040b1 }} and Venezuela.{{cite journal |first=Miriam |last=Kornblith |title=Latin America's Authoritarian Drift: Chavismo After Chávez? |journal=Journal of Democracy |volume=24 |issue=3 |pages=47–61 |date=July 2013 |doi=10.1353/jod.2013.0050|s2cid=36800728 }}

A democracy's political institutions can shape the number of parties that it has. In the 1950s Maurice Duverger observed that single-member district single-vote plurality-rule elections tend to produce two-party systems,{{rp|217}} and this phenomenon came to be known as Duverger's law. Whether or not this pattern is true has been heavily debated over the last several decades.{{cite journal |author1=William Roberts Clark |author2=Matt Golder |title=Rehabilitating Duverger's Theory: Testing the Mechanical and Strategic Modifying Effects of Electoral Laws |journal=Comparative Political Studies |volume=39 |issue=6 |pages=679–708 |date=August 2006 |doi=10.1177/0010414005278420|s2cid=154525800 }} Some political scientists have broadened this idea to argue that more restrictive political institutions (of which first past the post is one example) tend to produce a smaller number of political parties, so that extremely small parties systems – like those with only two parties – tend to form in countries with very restrictive rules.{{cite journal |first1=Karen E. |last1=Ferree |first2=G. Bingham |last2=Powell |first3=Ethan |last3=Scheiner |title=Context, Electoral Rules, and Party Systems |journal=Annual Review of Political Science |volume=17 |pages=421–439 |date=May 2014 |doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-102512-195419|doi-access=free }}

Two-party systems have attracted heavy criticism for limiting the choices that electors have, and much of this criticism has centered around their association with restrictive political institutions. For example, some commentators argue that political institutions in prominent two-party systems like the United States have been specifically designed to ensure that no third party can become competitive.{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/04/27/why-are-there-only-two-parties-in-american-politics/ |title=Why are there only two parties in American politics? |newspaper=The Washington Post |first=Aaron |last=Blake |date=27 April 2016 |access-date=17 September 2021}} Criticisms also center around these systems' tendencies to encourage insincere voting and to facilitate the spoiler effect.{{cite book |first1=Lisa Jane |last1=Disch |first2=Robert Y. |last2=Shapiro |year=2002 |title=The Tyranny of the Two-Party System |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0231110358}}{{rp|ch. 1}}

{{Main|Multi-party system}}

File:Boleta electoral marcada, de las elecciones federales de México de 2012.JPG

Multi-party systems are systems in which more than two parties have a realistic chance of holding power and influencing policy. A very large number of systems around the world have had periods of multi-party competition,{{cite book |first=Giovanni |last=Sartori |year=2005 |title=Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis |chapter=The overall framework |pages=243–2281 |publisher=European Consortium for Political Research Press |isbn=0954796616}} and two-party democracies may be considered unusual or uncommon compared to multi-party systems.{{cite journal |author1=Stephen P. Nicholson |author2=Christopher J. Carman |author3=Chelsea M. Coe |author4=Aidan Feeney |author5=Balázs Fehér |author6=Brett K. Hayes |author7=Christopher Kam |author8=Jeffrey A. Karp |author9=Gergo Vaczi |author10=Evan Heit |title=The Nature of Party Categories in Two-Party and Multiparty Systems |journal=Advances in Political Psychology |volume=39 |issue=S1 |pages=279–304 |date=13 February 2018 |doi=10.1111/pops.12486|url=https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/15873 |doi-access=free |hdl=1959.4/unsworks_76305 |hdl-access=free }} Many of the largest democracies in the world have had long periods of multi-party competition, including India,{{cite book |author1=Anthony Heath |author2=Siana Glouharova |author3=Oliver Heath |chapter=India: Two-Party Contests within a Multiparty System |year=2005 |editor1=Michael Gallagher |editor2=Paul Mitchell |title=The Politics of Electoral Systems |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199257560 |doi=10.1093/0199257566.003.0007 |pages=137–156}} Indonesia,{{cite journal |author1=A. Farid Wadjdi |author2=Mistiani |author3=Nebula F. Hasani |title= The Multi-Party System in Indonesia: Reviewing the Number of Electoral Parties from the Aspects of the National Defense and Security |journal=Journal of Social and Political Sciences |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=711–724 |year=2020 |doi=10.31014/aior.1991.03.03.204|s2cid=224991370 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/3975661 }} Pakistan,{{cite journal |author1=Xiang Wu |author2=Salman Ali |title=The Novel Changes in Pakistan's Party Politics: Analysis of Causes and Impacts |journal=Chinese Political Science Review |volume=5 |pages=513–533 |date=25 July 2020 |issue=4 |doi=10.1007/s41111-020-00156-z|s2cid=220833554 |doi-access=free |pmc=7382323 }} and Brazil.{{cite web |url=http://neci.fflch.usp.br/sites/neci.fflch.usp.br/files/Freitas_CoalitionalPresidentialism3%20(1).pdf |title=Governmental Coalitions in Multiparty Presidentialism: The Brazilian Case (1988–2011) |first=Andréa |last=Marcondes de Freitas |publisher=Universidade de São Paulo |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=19 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119100144/http://neci.fflch.usp.br/sites/neci.fflch.usp.br/files/Freitas_CoalitionalPresidentialism3%20(1).pdf |url-status=live }} Multi-party systems encourage characteristically different types of governance than smaller party systems, for example by often encouraging the formation of coalition governments.{{cite journal |first=Lawrence C. |last=Dodd |title=Party Coalitions in Multiparty Parliaments: A Game-Theoretic Analysis |journal=The American Political Science Review |volume=68 |issue=3 |pages=1093–1117 |date=September 1974 |doi=10.2307/1959150|jstor=1959150 |s2cid=147014497 }}

The presence of many competing political parties is usually associated with a greater level of democracy, and a country transitioning from having a one-party system to having a many-party system is often considered to be democratizing.{{cite journal |first=Giovanni M. |last=Carbone |title=Developing Multi-Party Politics: Stability and Change in Ghana and Mozambique |journal=Crisis States Programme Working Paper Series |volume=1 |issue=36 |url=http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/28232/1/wp36.pdf |access-date=23 January 2021 |date=November 2003 |archive-date=30 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130002957/http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/28232/1/wp36.pdf |url-status=live }} Authoritarian countries can include multi-party competition, but typically this occurs when the elections are not fair.{{cite book |first=Susanne |last=Michalik |chapter=Introduction |title=Multiparty Elections in Authoritarian Regimes |isbn=978-3-658-09510-9 |page=1 |year= 2015 |doi=10.1007/978-3-658-09511-6_1}} For this reason, in two-party democracies like the United States, proponents of forming new competitive political parties often argue that developing a multi-party system would make the country more democratic.{{cite news |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/19/us-democracy-two-party-system-replace-multiparty-republican-democrat/ |title=Let a Thousand Parties Bloom |work=Foreign Policy |first=Lee |last=Drutman |date=19 October 2019 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=13 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210213034325/https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/19/us-democracy-two-party-system-replace-multiparty-republican-democrat/ |url-status=live }} However, the question of whether multi-party systems are more democratic than two-party systems, or if they enjoy better policy outcomes, is a subject of substantial disagreement among scholars{{cite news |url=http://bostonreview.net/politics/sam-rosenfeld-it-takes-three-or-more |title=It Takes Three (or More) |work=Boston Review |first=Sam |last=Rosenfeld |date=14 April 2020 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=28 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128162209/http://bostonreview.net/politics/sam-rosenfeld-it-takes-three-or-more |url-status=live }}{{cite news |url=https://www.e-ir.info/2012/11/21/does-a-multi-party-system-lead-to-more-democracy/ |title=Does a Multi-party System Lead to "More" Democracy? |work=E-International Relations |first=Anastasija |last=Malachova |date=21 November 2012 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=29 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129035657/https://www.e-ir.info/2012/11/21/does-a-multi-party-system-lead-to-more-democracy/ |url-status=live }} as well as among the public.{{cite web |url=https://www.afrobarometer.org/press/africans-increasingly-support-multiparty-democracy-trust-political-parties-remains-low |title=Africans increasingly support multiparty democracy, but trust in political parties remains low |publisher=Afrobarometer |date=18 June 2018 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=30 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130234309/https://www.afrobarometer.org/press/africans-increasingly-support-multiparty-democracy-trust-political-parties-remains-low |url-status=live }}{{cite journal |first1=Todd |last1=Donovan |first2=Janine A. |last2=Parry |first3=Shaun|last3= Bowler |title=O Other, Where Art Thou? Support for Multiparty Politics in the United States |journal=Social Science Quarterly |volume=86 |issue=1 |pages=147–159 |date=March 2005|doi=10.1111/j.0038-4941.2005.00295.x|doi-access=free }} In the opposite extreme, a country with a very large number of parties can experience governing coalitions that include highly ideologically diverse parties that are unable to make much policy progress, which may cause the country to be unstable and experience a very large number of elections; examples of systems that have been described as having these problems include periods in the recent history of Israel,{{cite book |author1=Gideon Rahat |author2=Reuven Y. Hazan |chapter=Israel: The Politics of an Extreme Electoral System |year=2005 |editor1=Michael Gallagher |editor2=Paul Mitchell |title=The Politics of Electoral Systems |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199257560 |doi=10.1093/0199257566.001.0001 |pages=333–351}} Italy, and Finland.{{cite book |first=Tapio |last=Raunio |chapter=Finland: One Hundred Years of Quietude |year=2005 |editor1=Michael Gallagher |editor2=Paul Mitchell |title=The Politics of Electoral Systems |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0199257560 |doi=10.1093/0199257566.001.0001 |page=486}} Multi-party systems are often viewed as fairer or more representative than one- or two-party systems, but they also have downsides, like the likelihood that in a system with plurality voting the winner of a race with many options will only have minority support.{{cite journal |first=Bharatu G. |last=Ganawari |title=The stability of multi-party system in Indian democracy: A critique |journal=International Journal of Arts and Science Research |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=97–102 |year=2017}}

Some multi-party systems may have two parties that are noticeably more competitive than the other parties.{{cite news |url=https://observer.com/2016/07/why-the-two-party-system-isnt-as-broken-as-you-may-think/ |title=Why the Two-Party System Isn't as Broken as You May Think |work=Observer |first=Darrell |last=Francis |date=13 July 2016 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=30 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130032202/https://observer.com/2016/07/why-the-two-party-system-isnt-as-broken-as-you-may-think/ |url-status=live }} Such party systems have been called "two-party-plus" systems, which refers to the two dominant parties, plus other parties that exist but rarely or never hold power in the government.{{cite journal |first=Leon D. |last=Epstein |title=A Comparative Study of Canadian Parties |journal=The American Political Science Review |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=46–59 |date=March 1964 |doi=10.2307/1952754|jstor=1952754 |s2cid=145086350 }} Such parties may serve a crucial factor in election outcomes.{{cite encyclopedia|last=Basham|first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Basham|editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |chapter=Political Parties|chapter-url=https://sk.sagepub.com/reference/libertarianism/n233.xml|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n233 |year=2008 |publisher= Sage; Cato Institute |location= Thousand Oaks, CA |isbn= 978-1412965804 |oclc=750831024| lccn = 2008009151 |pages=379–380|url-access=subscription }} It is also possible for very large multi-party systems, like India's, to nevertheless be characterized largely by a series of regional contests that realistically have only two competitive parties, but in the aggregate can produce many more than two parties that have major roles in the country's national politics.

{{Main|Political party funding}}

Many of the activities of political parties involve the acquisition and allocation of funds in order to achieve political goals. The funding involved can be very substantial, with contemporary elections in the largest democracies typically costing billions or even tens of billions of dollars.{{cite news |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-11/why-india-s-election-is-among-the-world-s-most-expensive |title=Why India's Election Is Among the World's Most Expensive |work=Bloomberg News |author1=Archana Chaudhary |author2=Jeanette Rodrigues |date=11 March 2019 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=31 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210131081640/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-11/why-india-s-election-is-among-the-world-s-most-expensive |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/10/cost-of-2020-election-14billion-update/ |title=2020 election to cost $14 billion, blowing away spending records |publisher=OpenSecrets |date=28 October 2020 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=22 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210122022953/https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/10/cost-of-2020-election-14billion-update |url-status=live }} Much of this expense is paid by candidates and political parties, which often develop sophisticated fundraising organizations.{{cite journal |author1=Justin Fisher |author2=Todd A. Eisenstadt |title=Introduction: Comparative Party Finance: What is to be Done? |journal=Party Politics |volume=10 |issue=6 |pages=619–626 |date=1 November 2004 |doi=10.1177/1354068804046910|s2cid=144721738 |url=http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/3539 |url-access=subscription }} Because paying for participation in electoral contests is such a central democratic activity, the funding of political parties is an important feature of a country's politics.

File:The Bosses of the Senate by Joseph Keppler.jpg

Common sources of party funding across countries include dues-paying party members, advocacy groups and lobbying organizations, corporations, trade unions, and candidates who may self-fund activities.{{cite journal |first=Brad |last=Alexander |title=Good Money and Bad Money: Do Funding Sources Affect Electoral Outcomes? |journal=Political Research Quarterly |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=353–358 |date=June 2005 |doi=10.2307/3595635|jstor=3595635 }} In most countries, the government also provides some level of funding for political parties.{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/law/help/campaign-finance-regulation/comparative.php |title=Regulation of Campaign Finance and Free Advertising |publisher=Library of Congress |date=March 2016 |first=Ruth |last=Levush |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=27 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227220849/https://www.loc.gov/law/help/campaign-finance-regulation/comparative.php |url-status=live }} Nearly all of the 180 countries examined by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance have some form of public funding for political parties, and about a third have regular payments of government funds that goes beyond campaign reimbursements.{{cite web |url=https://www.idea.int/data-tools/question-view/548 |title=Are there provisions for direct public funding to political parties? |publisher=International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance |access-date=23 January 2021 |archive-date=25 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125161140/https://www.idea.int/data-tools/question-view/548 |url-status=live }} In some countries, public funding for parties depends on the size of that party: for example, a country may only provide funding to parties which have more than a certain number of candidates or supporters. A common argument for public funding of political parties is that it creates fairer and more democratic elections by enabling more groups to compete, whereas many advocates for private funding of parties argue that donations to parties are a form of political expression that should be protected in a democracy.{{cite web |url=https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Completed_Inquiries/em/political%20funding/Report/Chapter3 |title=Report of the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters |publisher=Parliament of Australia |date=9 December 2011 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=29 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129093924/https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Completed_Inquiries/em/political%20funding/Report/Chapter3 |url-status=live }} Public financing of political parties may decrease parties' pursuit of funds through corrupt methods, by decreasing their incentive to find alternate sources of funding.{{cite journal |first=Marcus |last=Meitzner |title=Party Financing in Post-Soeharto Indonesia: Between State Subsidies and Political Corruption |journal=Contemporary Southeast Asia |volume=29 |issue=2 |pages=238–263 |date=August 2007 |jstor=25798830 |s2cid=154173938}}

One way of categorizing the sources of party funding is between public funding and private funding. Another dichotomy is between plutocratic and grassroots sources; parties which get much of their funding from large corporations may tend to pursue different policies and use different strategies than parties which are mostly funded through small donations by individual supporters.{{cite journal |first=Susan E. |last=Scarrow |title=Political Finance in Comparative Perspective |journal=Annual Review of Political Science |volume=10 |pages=193–210 |date=15 June 2007 |doi=10.1146/annurev.polisci.10.080505.100115|doi-access=free }} Private funding for political parties can also be thought of as coming from internal or external sources: this distinguishes between dues from party members or contributions by candidates, and donations from entities outside of the party like non-members, corporations, or trade unions. Internal funding may be preferred because external sources might make the party beholden to an outside entity.

There are many ways in which political parties may deploy money in order to secure better electoral outcomes. Parties often spend money to train activists, recruit volunteers, create and deploy advertisements, conduct research and support for their leadership in between elections, and promote their policy agenda. Many political parties and candidates engage in a practice called clientelism, in which they distribute material rewards to people in exchange for political support; in many countries this is illegal, though even where it is illegal it may nevertheless be widespread in practice.{{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Corstange |year=2016 |title=The Price of a Vote in the Middle East: Clientelism and Communal Politics in Lebanon and Yemen |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=8 |isbn=978-1107106673}} Some parties engage directly in vote buying, in which a party gives money to a person in exchange for their vote.{{cite journal |first=Cesi |last=Cruz |title=Social Networks and the Targeting of Vote Buying |journal=Comparative Political Studies |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=382–411 |date=7 August 2018 |doi=10.1177/0010414018784062|s2cid=158712487 |doi-access=free }}

Though it may be crucial for a party to spend more than some threshold to win a given election, there are typically diminishing returns for expenses during a campaign.{{cite journal |author1=Chris W. Bonneau |author2=Damon M. Cann |title=Campaign Spending, Diminishing Marginal Returns, and Campaign Finance Restrictions in Judicial Elections |journal=The Journal of Politics |volume=73 |issue=4 |pages=1267–1280 |date=October 2011 |doi=10.1017/S0022381611000934}} Once a party has crossed a particular spending threshold, additional expenditures might not increase their chance of success.{{cite web |url=https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2020/11/27/the-2020-election-was-the-most-expensive-in-history-but-campaign-spending-does-not-always-lead-to-success/ |title=The 2020 election was the most expensive in history, but campaign spending does not always lead to success |publisher=London School of Economics |date=27 November 2020 |first=William |last=Horncastle |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=16 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210116041427/https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/2020/11/27/the-2020-election-was-the-most-expensive-in-history-but-campaign-spending-does-not-always-lead-to-success/ |url-status=live }}

Fundraising and expenditures by political parties are typically regulated by governments, with many countries' regulations focusing on who can contribute money to parties, how parties' money can be spent, and how much of it can pass through the hands of a political party.{{cite web |url=https://www.idea.int/news-media/news/let%E2%80%99s-talk-about-money-comparative-perspectives-political-finance-regulations |title=Let's talk about money: comparative perspectives on political finance regulations |publisher=International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance |first=Yukihiko |last=Hamada |date=11 December 2018 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=30 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210130022603/https://www.idea.int/news-media/news/let%E2%80%99s-talk-about-money-comparative-perspectives-political-finance-regulations |url-status=live }} Two main ways in which regulations affect parties are by intervening in their sources of income and by mandating that they maintain some level of transparency about their funding.{{cite journal |author1=David L. Wiltse |author2=Raymond J. La Raja |author3=Dorie E. Apollonio |title=Typologies of Party Finance Systems: A Comparative Study of How Countries Regulate Party Finance and Their Institutional Foundations |journal=Election Law Journal: Rules, Politics, and Policy |volume=18 |issue=3 |pages=243–261 |date=11 September 2019 |doi=10.1089/elj.2018.0493|pmid=34113217 |pmc=8189065 }} One common type of restriction on how parties acquire money is to limit who can donate money to political parties; for example, people who are not citizens of a country may not be allowed to make contributions to that country's political parties, in order to prevent foreign interference. It is also common to limit how much money an individual can give to a political party each election.{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/law/help/campaign-finance/comparative-summary.php |title=Campaign Finance: Comparative Summary |first=Nicole |last=Atwill |publisher=Library of Congress |date=May 2009 |access-date=22 January 2021 |archive-date=1 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210401021514/https://www.loc.gov/law/help/campaign-finance/comparative-summary.php |url-status=live }} Similarly, many governments cap the total amount of money that can be spent by each party in an election. Transparency regulations may require parties to disclose detailed financial information to the government, and in many countries transparency laws require those disclosures to be available to the public, as a safeguard against potential corruption. Creating, implementing, and amending laws regarding party expenses can be extremely difficult, since governments may be controlled by the very parties that these regulations restrict.

{{main|Political colour|List of political party symbols}}

Nearly all political parties associate themselves with specific colours and symbols, primarily to aid voters in identifying, recognizing, and remembering the party. This branding is particularly important in polities where much of the population may be illiterate, so that someone who cannot read a party's name on a ballot can instead identify that party by colour or logo.{{cite news |url=https://www.cnn.com/style/article/india-election-party-symbols/index.html |title=Ceiling fans, brooms and mangoes: The election symbols of India's political parties |work=CNN |author1=Manveena Suri |author2=Oscar Holland |date=19 April 2019 |access-date=24 January 2021 |archive-date=24 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124112838/https://www.cnn.com/style/article/india-election-party-symbols/index.html |url-status=live }} Parties of similar ideologies will often use the same colours across different countries. Colour associations are useful as a short-hand for referring to and representing parties in graphical media. They can also be used to refer to coalitions and alliances between political parties and other organizations;{{cite news |url=https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-colorful-coalition-shorthand/g-40654452 |title=Germany's colorful coalition shorthand |work=Deutsche Welle |first=Ian P. |last=Johnson |date=20 November 2017 |access-date=24 January 2021 |archive-date=29 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129095950/https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-colorful-coalition-shorthand/g-40654452 |url-status=live }} examples include purple alliances, red–green alliances, traffic light coalitions, pan-green coalitions, and pan-blue coalitions.

However, associations between colour and ideology can also be inconsistent: parties of the same ideology in different countries often use different colours, and sometimes competing parties in a country may even adopt the same colours.{{cite web |url=https://blog.datawrapper.de/partycolors/ |title=Election reporting: Which color for which party? |first=Lisa Charlotte |last=Rost |publisher=Datawrapper |date=28 August 2018 |access-date=24 January 2021 |archive-date=18 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118080639/https://blog.datawrapper.de/partycolors/ |url-status=live }} These associations also have major exceptions. For example, in the United States, red is associated with the more conservative Republican Party while blue is associated with the more left-leaning Democratic Party.{{citation |newspaper=The Washington Post |title=Elephants Are Red, Donkeys Are Blue |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17079-2004Nov1.html |first=Paul |last=Farhi |date=2 November 2004 |access-date=24 January 2021 |archive-date=9 May 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509144731/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17079-2004Nov1.html |url-status=live }}

• Cordon sanitaire (politics)
• List of banned political parties
• List of largest political parties
• List of ruling political parties by country
• Lists of political parties
• Lists of political parties by country
• Testimonial party
• Uniparty

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Category:Comparative politics

Category:Elections