On the Distinctiveness of Party Families Martin El E-mail:
[email protected] Fachbereich Politik- und Verwaltungswissenscha Postbox D¥ Universitätsstraße Ôý Þ¥ Þ Konstanz Germany Prepared for delivery at the ÞÔth Annual Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois, April ÔÔ-Ô¥, òýÔç Abstract e concept of party families has been a useful tool for the comparison and analysis of party systems in European democracies. Central to the concept is that parties maintain an identity as member in one of the “familles spirituelles” due to their heritage from the great ideological movements of the ÔÀth and early òýth century. It is oen presumed that in a post-ideological age, party families may become obsolete. But whether this empirically is the case remains an open question. is paper examines the political distinctiveness of party families in European politics aer ÔÀ¥ . Using a novel approach at analyzing party manifesto data it overcomes the restrictions imposed on the such analysis by the assumption of one or two ideological “super- issue” dimensions. As a consequence it is possible to establish the distinction e.g. between party families such as the christian democrats and the conservatives, which oen are lumped together into a single category of “center-right” parties. Ô Ô Introduction Party families are a common notion used to describe party competition in Europe, a notion that is one of the “standard items” on the comparative politics of Europe and on party politics (see e.g. Newton and van Deth òýý ; Mény and Knapp ÔÀÀ; Bale òýý; Gallagher et al.