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Article: Party Systems, Competitive
- Article from:
- International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
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Party Systems, Competitive
KINDS OF COMPETITIVE PARTY SYSTEMS
CAUSES OF DIFFERENCES IN PARTY SYSTEMS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Competitive party systems can be defined in two ways. They may be defined as all party systems in democratic countries, where competition among parties is at least theoretically possible. Alternatively, they may include only those party systems in which elections involving actual competition among two or more parties routinely takes place. For the sake of a broader focus of competitive party systems, the alternative definition is more encompassing and defined further in this entry. Competitive party systems differ from one-party systems primarily in terms of the number of ...