Abstract

Comparative scholarship conceives of party systems nationally. This has created a situation of conceptual and measurement incompleteness in the study of party systems. The effects of subnational variations in party competition on national politics and the quality of democracy cannot be understood if subnational party systems continue to be erased from the theoretical mapping of party politics. The concept of "federalized party systems" denotes systems composed of national and subnational party subsystems Its value for the comparative and longitudinal study of party politics can be demonstrated through an analysis of Argentina's federalized party system