ABSTRACT
Scott Mainwaring’s seminal work on the party systems theory highlights the importance of classifying party systems based on the levels of institutionalization (Mainwaring 1998). While it is very useful particularly in distinguishing party organizations in established democracies and the “third wave democracies,” one might have problems in applying his conceptions particularly in those countries categorized under hybrid regimes. Mainwaring’s current typologies in the levels of institutionalization are too dichotomized between well well-institutionalized and weakly institutionalized party systems. And it would be problematic in the political context of certain states, whereby the party systems are neither strong nor weak, but much more moderate and dynamic in character. This chapter offers an additional typological conceptualization of Mainwaring’s party systems theory that is a moderately institutionalized or hybrid party system, drawing from the historical experiences of party politics in Malaysia as a case study.
