Party Systems Transformations. A Study on Party Systems Changes in Contemporary Democracies

The article is divided into two parts. The first part comments upon methodological issues and challenges of the research into the transformations of competitive party arrangements in the context of contemporary pluralist democracies. It proposes and examines schematics and typology applicable to processes of party system transformations. A number of changes in party arrangements can materialize, which could be studied in various ways. However, this does not mean that any of these ways could be legitimized effectively. It is necessary to assess primarily changes in prevailing party interactions (including the system-making changes in party competition and cooperation patterns) and their impact on the working logic, systemic properties and "outputs" of party system in the wider political system framework. From this point of view, it seems particularly helpful to distinguish between party arrangement changes according to their differing system-making impact and try to explain which kind of changes is likely (or by definition) to bring about system transformation effect. The second part concentrates upon interpretations of the Italian and Japan party arrangements transformations in the 1990s. The two cases are both important and interesting for the comparative research into party systems transformations, because of particular combinations of system-breaking and/or system-making changes, which have played a role here.