Stability and incorporation: Toward a new concept of party system institutionalization

Abstract

Party system institutionalization (PSI) is a critical dimension of modern democracies. However, conventional approaches to institutionalization do not include party systems’ ability to adapt and respond to challenges that emanate from society, one of the crucial traits in Huntington’s definition of institutionalization. We discuss conventional approaches to the analysis of PSI. Building upon the idea of social orders put forth by North, Wallis, and Weingast, we argue that the analysis of institutionalization at the level of party systems must consider the system’s ability to provide open access and to include all sectors: that is, the system’s ability to incorporate demands that emanate from society. We propose a new conceptualization and operationalization of PSI, and we present a new data set of PSI indicators for 18 Latin American countries. Finally, we analyze the data to assess the level of PSI and type of party system in each Latin American country.

Raising the Red Flag: Democratic Elitism and the Protests in Chile

“…The Uruguayan Frente Amplio (Broad Front, FA) is well ahead of the other major parties in its commitment to permanently foster the engagement and participation of its activists. The FA has an organizational structure and rules that facilitate the incorporation of new activists and, at the same time, activists are present throughout the party structure, including a decisive role in the decision-making bodies of the party (Pérez Bentancur, Piñeiro Rodríguez, and Rosenblatt 2020). This explains the party’s ability to remain as the only institutionalized mass organic leftist party in Latin America (Levitsky and Roberts 2011).…”

“…In an institutionalized party system, one characterized by enduring parties that incorporate and balance interest groups and provide for ongoing participation and strong voice, continuous democracy engenders individuals' attachment and support; this support helps maintain loyalty even when outcomes are unfavorable, as they will inevitably be from time to time (Luna et al 2020;Piñeiro Rodríguez and Rosenblatt 2020). Political decisions become a shared destiny, not a gift (or a curse) brought by leaders, who are drawn from a political class that is different from the general citizenry.…”

Party statutes and party institutionalization

“…At the same time, high party institutionalization does not necessarily optimize democratic outcomes, because highly institutionalized parties may inhibit democratic competition and stifle the emergence of party challengers, whether that high institutionalization takes the form of multiple cartelized parties leveraging their access to state resources (Katz and Mair, 1995) or single dominant parties whose recruitment channels are the main alternative for those with political ambitions (Greene and Sánchez-Talanquer, 2018: p. 216). There also may be a curvilinear relationship between institutionalization and responsiveness, with institutionalization aiding party persistence in the face of electoral defeats (Wills-Otero, 2016: p. 759), but very high institutionalization hampering parties’ adaptability to changing circumstances (Levitsky, 1998: p. 81; Rodriguez and Rosenblatt, 2020). For all these reasons, scholars conceive of party institutionalization as a matter of degree, not as a threshold property, with different levels possibly having different implications for parties and party systems.…”

Political parties, diminished subtypes, and democracy

“…The literature has systematically argued that there exists a much more nuanced relationship between existing parties (and party systems) and democratic representation (Hicken, 2009; Kitschelt and Wilkinson, 2007; Lawson and Merkl, 1988; Levitsky, 2003; Luna, 2014; Luna and Zechmeister, 2005; Mainwaring, 2018; Piñeiro Rodríguez and Rosenblatt, 2020; Roberts, 2014; Mainwaring and Scully, 1995). The party politics literature has extensively considered the exogenous conditions that determine levels of representation.…”