Institutes of Political Parties in Regimes with Limited Competition

Liberal-Democratic Theory allows for the existence of the dominant party in the system recognized as competitive democracy. Dominant parties featuring in real liberal democracies have a significant impact on the theory and practical workings of such systems. As a consequence, research into the distinctive features and rules of functioning of dominant parties is clearly warranted with the aim of further systematizing them. The work explores in depth what the dominant party is making use of the seven well-known and most remarkable case studies. A thorough analysis of the inner structure and the functioning peculiarities of dominant parties and systems with dominant parties is carried out. This analysis serves as a tool for singling out the key, distinguishing features of dominant parties as well as strategies employed by dominant parties and other participants of the party-parliament system. The work offers its own definition of the dominant party based on empirical data and theoretical political concepts, theories and typologies. In the final part of the work there are conclusions about the reasons for the emergence and development of dominant parties and explanations of the fact why they retain their dominant status. The work also outlines possible scenarios of the evolution of party-parliament systems with the dominant party.