trend toward the extremes, as conservative and noncommunist-left parties accounted for more of the new parties that existed in 1971-1978 than in 1963-1970. This raises of course the question of the trend in party ideologies since 1950. Using the same classification system but extending it to all 208 parties analyzed according to their existence in each of four subdivisions of time from 1950 to 1978, we find the overall trend of party ideologies given in Table 15.6.

When the new parties are merged with the original parties and the time perspective is extended, one finds little evidence of systematic change in party ideologies over time, except that there has been a slight decrease in the proportion of functioning communist parties. There has also been a small increase in leftist (noncommunist) parties. The drop in proportion of centrist parties noted among the new is retained but to a lesser degree among all the parties. Overall, however, there have been no major changes in the distribution of party ideologies since 1950. About 30 percent of the world's parties are "conservative," 25 percent are "centrist," a little higher proportion is "leftist" but not communist, and about 15 percent are classified as "communist." While these worldwide figures undoubtedly mask important differences within regions and perhaps within nations, there appears to be much more continuity than change in party ideologies at the global level.

If trends in party ideology do not seem sufficient to support explanations of regional differences in the formation of new parties, we need look elsewhere for clues. It is illuminating to return to the fate of parties, for even the new parties are susceptible to termination. Indeed as Table 15.7 reveals, 7 of the 50 parties that qualified after 1962 failed to last through 1978. Moreover, 6 of the 7 terminated "involuntarily"--an even higher proportion than suffered by the original parties.

Analyzing party fates by regions tells us a good deal about the hospitality of cultural-geographical areas for party continuity and change. The relevant data are in Table 15.8. Consider first the experience of the "Anglo-American Culture Area," admittedly a diverse grouping of nations, including India and the old Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland along with New Zealand, Canada, and the other "Western" progeny of the British Empire. Despite the mixture of countries, more than 80 percent of the original parties lasted through 1978. The few that terminated tended to do so voluntarily through splits or mergers rather than involuntarily as a result of governmental actions. The single case (4 percent) of a party ending involuntarily occurred in Zambia (formerly Northern Rhodesia, part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland), when the African National Congress, which had continued following the dissolution of the federation, was banned by Kenneth Kaunda, who made his own party the only party. In fact, parties in the former federation account for three of the four terminations in the Anglo-American grouping! The other one was the Indian Communist Party previously discussed.

If we turn our attention to the row in Table 15.8 corresponding to all "Western" countries, we see that nearly 85 percent of the parties continued through 1978. Moreover, most of the parties that failed to continue did so for voluntary reasons. The other party that was terminated involuntarily was Salazar's former National Union in Portugal, which was dissolved after the 1974 coup. In contrast to the Western parties, parties in Latin America are liable to be terminated more often by suppression and dissolution. But note that this tendency is associated only with Central America, not South America. While party activities in South American countries were often proscribed for varying periods of time, none of twenty South American parties was successfully terminated by governmental action. In Asia, fully half the parties did not last through 1978. Those that failed to survive failed about equally for voluntary and involuntary reasons. In Eastern Europe, the picture is as clear for the fate of continuing parties as it was for the appearance of new parties. Just as no new parties ap-

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