Time as Age: Measuring the Durability of Party Systems

Few political phenomena in political science have been mapped and measured as extensively as party systems. The party literature measure their fragmentation, volatility, nationalization and polarization. The one dimension of party systems that has hitherto resisted measurement is their age even though it figures prominently in many qualitative studies about their consolidation. Efforts to capture a party system’s age have been limited to report the age of its major political parties. This paper proposes a new more systematic measure of a party system’s age that is based on the organizational continuity of political parties. The logistical organization of parties, their governing structures, membership rosters and formal name constitute very durable properties of party systems; party organizations endure in many instance longer than their leaders, members, policies and voter allegiances. Party organizations thus make observable continuities and discontinuities in party systems and hence provide an excellent benchmark for measuring their durability and ultimately also overall age.