The Life Cycle of Political Parties

Parties are mortal. Birth from crisis or cleavage, growth by absorbing movements, maturity as machine or cartel, then adaptation or death.

The Federalists vanished within a generation, the Whigs collapsed over slavery, European communists withered after 1989. Survivors adapt, the Democrats absorbed immigrants and the New Deal coalition, then rebuilt around civil rights, British Labour rebranded as New Labour, Scandinavian conservatives accepted welfare states.

Cartel theory says established parties rewrite rules, ballots and subsidies, to keep newcomers out, yet new entrants keep arriving, greens, populists, insurgents. The average party lifespan runs decades, not centuries..