Towards a New Typology of Party Lifespans and Minor Parties

Minor and new parties tend to be forgotten by analysts of parties and party systems. Good as well as bad reasons account for this neglect. The neglect ought, however, to be remedied, since it can be argued that minor, and especially new minor, parties play an important role in the transformation of party systems. On the basis of a ‘broad’ definition of the concept of political party it is suggested that it is worthwhile to look upon parties as mortal organizations bounded by a lifespan. The lifespan of a party can be described by means of four threshold concepts, and it is further argued that lifespan curves can be studied in terms of their modality, dispersion, flatness, and skewness. A number of questions are derived from these concepts. A new typology of minor parties and of party lifespans may be generated from this approach.