Formalizing and Testing Duverger's Theories on Political Parties

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Abstract
Maurice Duverger's Political Parties, written more than three decades ago, remains the most prominent source of hypotheses on parties and party systems. Although many years have passed since its publication, no one has formalized Duverger's main hypotheses on political parties and subjected them to empirical test. This article identifies Duverger's key concepts on party structure, links the concepts in 19 formal bivariate propositions, operationalizes the concepts using data from a worldwide sample of 147 parties in 53 countries, and tests all 19 propositions. Twelve are supported by the cross-national empirical test. Interrelationships among these 12 bivariate propositions are shown in a causal diagram, and suggestions are made for moving beyond Duverger's bivariate thinking to more powerful multivariate theorizing about the causes and consequences of party structure.

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