Note that some of the parties that qualified for study
after 1962 had been formed earlier but were not strong or
stable enough to warrant consideration previously. If we
allow for their inclusion among the 1950-1962 sample and
carry over to 1963-1978 the original parties plus all new
ones, we find ourselves with a combined sample of 208
parties that distribute across four roughly equivalent time
periods as shown in Table 15.3. Note that the numbers of
parties that existed in each time slice fluctuate around
150, averaging just under three parties per country. The
only important difference is between 1950-1956 and
1957-1962, when there was a sizable increase in party
formation. This difference can be attributed mainly to the
rise of new African parties in the drive for independence
and the early years thereafter.
TABLE 15.3: Existence of 208 Parties in
Four Time Periods
|
Time Period
|
No. of Parties
|
% of All Parties
|
1950-1956
|
|
|
Original sample
|
135
|
|
New parties
|
6
|
|
|
142
|
68% of 208
|
1957-1962
|
|
|
Original sample
|
147
|
|
New parties
|
11
|
|
|
158
|
76% of 208
|
1963-1970
|
|
|
Original sample
|
124
|
|
New parties
|
30
|
|
|
154
|
74% of 208
|
1971-1978
|
|
|
Original sample
|
106
|
|
New parties
|
48
|
|
|
154
|
74% of 208
|
As the 1957-1962 African experience indicates, some
environments are especially conducive to party formation.
For our purposes, we shall limit our concern with the
environment to the study of party origin by region.
Employing the cultural-geographical regions described in
Chapter 1, we find the 50 new parties distributed by region
as shown in Table 15.4. Learning the areas where the new
parties originated causes us to reconsider environmental
"hospitality" in the formation of new parties. The region
with the largest number of new parties is Asia, followed by
Central America. Unlike Western Europe (which is third as a
source of new parties), neither Asia nor Central America is
apt to be regarded as suitable soil for growing parties. On
the other hand, it is not surprising that Eastern Europe
accounts for no new parties since 1962 (or 1950, for that
matter). But note that the absence of new parties in Eastern
Europe differs little from the Anglo-American cultural area,
whose eight countries gave rise to only one new party
after 1962 that qualified for study. Clearly, the
environmental conditions that give rise to new parties are
not easily summarized.
TABLE 15.4: Distribution of New
Parties by
Regions1
|
Region
|
No. of Parties
|
Anglo-American Culture
Area2
|
1
|
West Central Europe
|
8
|
Scandinavia and Benelux
|
6
|
South America
|
2
|
Central America and Caribbean
|
9
|
Asia and the Far East
|
10
|
Eastern Europe
|
-
|
Middle East and North Africa
|
6
|
West Africa
|
6
|
Central and East Africa
|
2
|
Total
|
50
|
-
1Each region consists of five
countries except the Anglo-American
culture area, which has eight. See Table
1.1 for a list of all countries by
region.
- 2The
Anglo-American area includes the
Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland,
which terminated in 1963. It also includes
India.
|
Perhaps a clue to conditions that favor the rise of new
parties exists in their ideological orientations. Is there a
trend toward the formation of "leftist" parties? Or is
"conservatism" on the rise across the world? As many as
possible of the new parties were coded for their ideological
orientations using the four-point State Department
classification of parties as "Conservative," "Center,"
Non-Communist Left," and "Communist." Chapter 6 describes
the State Department classification and compares its ratings
of parties on a left-right scale with the description of
party ideologies in a Soviet source. Given the high
correlation (above .85) between the U.S. and U.S.S.R.
sources, we generated a combined rating, utilizing also the
descriptions of party ideologies found in the Political
Handbook of the World and the Europa Yearbook.
The results of scoring the parties on their ideological
orientation are reported in Table 15.5.
Not all the new parties could be coded for ideological
orientation. Those that could be coded revealed a small
TABLE 15.5: Percentage Distribution of
New Parties1 by Ideology
|
Ideology
|
1963-1970
|
1971-1978
|
Conservative
|
30%
|
39%
|
Center
|
41
|
25
|
Non-Communist Left
|
18
|
25
|
Communist
|
11
|
11
|
Total
|
100%
|
100%
|
N
|
27
|
36
|
'Not all the new parties could be
coded for ideological orientation. Only 30 of the
new parties were active in 1963-1970 and 48 in
1971-1978.
|
|