Editing Party system (section)

{{Short description|Political groupings in a democracy}}
{{Party politics}}
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A '''party system''' is  a concept in comparative [[political science]] concerning the system of government by [[political party|political parties]] in a democratic country. The idea is that political parties have basic similarities: they control the [[government]], have a stable base of mass popular support, and create internal mechanisms for controlling funding, information and nominations.

The party system concept was originated by European scholars studying the United States, especially [[James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce|James Bryce]], [[Giovanni Sartori]] and [[Moisey Ostrogorsky]], and has been expanded to cover other democracies.<ref>Lipset and Rokkan (1967); Karvonen and Kuhnle (2000)</ref> Party systems can be distinguished by the degree of [[political fragmentation]],<ref>Sartori (1976)</ref><ref>[[Grigorii Golosov|Golosov, Grigorii V.]] (2010): The Effective Number of Parties: A New Approach. ''Party Politics'', 16(2):171–192.</ref> proportionality of [[seats-to-votes ratio]] and [[barriers to entry]] to the [[electoral competition|political competition]].<ref>[http://www.jstor.org/stable/1816288 Tullock, Gordon. "Entry barriers in politics." The American Economic Review 55.1/2 (1965): 458–466.]</ref>

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