Party Systems and Democratization: A Comparative Study of the Third Word

This study examines the development of democracy in the Third World in the 1990s. All Third World countries that had at least one competitive election in the 1990s are included. The development of democracy is the dependent variable: did the countries mature into liberal democracy, remain electoral democracies or relapse into authoritarianism? The independent variables measure three dimensions of party systems: fragmentation, one-party dominance, and stability. Presidentialism/parliamentarism and majoritarianism/proportionalism are controlled for as intervening variables. Overall, the results indicate that party system characteristics are of limited explanatory value. However, in certain contexts they seem to play a role. In countries with majoritarian electoral systems, both one-party dominance and a high degree of party system fragmentation are detrimental to the development of democracy. In parliamentary systems, there is a negative association between the development of democracy and the degree of party system fragmentation.