A Note on the Fractionalization of Some European Party Systems

“Fractionalization” is a concept which may be substituted for the awkward and theoretically wasteful notion of “multipartism,” which ordinarily results in the nominal classification of one-, two-, and multi-party systems. This more traditional classification, of course, leads to a number of annoying questions: (1) Where ‘ d o we draw the cutting points between classes (Is Great Britain’s a two-party system, or must we say something like “two-and-one-half”)? (2) Is it useful to treat these classes as though they were homogeneous (Are Israel and Austria profitably classed together as multi-party systems)? And, most important, (3) what theoretical use does the classification have (How is it to help with theory-building)? I t may make sense not to answer these questions, give up the scheme, and substitute the concept of “fractionalization.”