Party Institutionalization in New Democracies

The literature on democratisation emphasises the contribution of political parties, and in that context the importance of party institutionalization. But this concept remains relatively unexplored. Our article first considers the relationship between party institutionalization and party system institutionalization, pointing out that they are not necessarily convergent. We then review the existing literature on party institutionalization, indicating weaknesses and contradictions, before offering our own analytic model. In the final section we identify some of the key considerations arising when this model is applied to the particular circumstances of democratic transition in the Third World.