During much of the 20th century, the national party systems of Western Europe remained largely unchanged. However, beginning in the 1970s, these frozen party systems slowly started to melt. As the number of parties has increased, the question of what explains new party entrance has also attracted more scholarly interest. Despite this increased attention, the study of new political parties still suffers from a structuralist bias. The implication is that the fates of new parties are decided almost exclusively by external factors. Some scholars focus on the institutional environment; others emphasize sociological explanations, such as the formation of new cleavages in society. Yet such non-actor-centred perspectives risk being excessively deterministic. They also struggle to explain why some parties succeed in gaining entrance to legislatures while others, seemingly under the same external circumstances, fail. In this thesis, therefore, a new way to study parties and their path to parliament is proposed. Starting with the notion that external conditions alone cannot explain new party entrance, the thesis takes an agency-based perspective. Three sets of strategies are identified as being important means for a party to influence its chances of getting into parliament. They concern the party's resources, its political project and its external relations. In what ways can supply and management of resources, policies and relations with other parties affect the potential for becoming a parliamentary party? Through four in-depth case studies of new entrants into the Swedish national parliament, the Riksdag, the thesis concludes that there are some important commonalities in their paths to parliament. Especially with regard to their resources and their political project, the empirical evidence supports the initial premise: new party entrance is unthinkable without successful strategic behaviour.

During much of the 20th century, the national party systems of Western Europe remained largely unchanged. However, beginning in the 1970s, these frozen party systems slowly started to melt. As the number of parties has increased, the question of what explains new party entrance has also attracted more scholarly interest. Despite this increased attention, the study of new political parties still suffers from a structuralist bias. The implication is that the fates of new parties are decided almost exclusively by external factors. Some scholars focus on the institutional environment; others emphasize sociological explanations, such as the formation of new cleavages in society. Yet such non-actor-centred perspectives risk being excessively deterministic. They also struggle to explain why some parties succeed in gaining entrance to legislatures while others, seemingly under the same external circumstances, fail. In this thesis, therefore, a new way to study parties and their path to parliament is proposed. Starting with the notion that external conditions alone cannot explain new party entrance, the thesis takes an agency-based perspective. Three sets of strategies are identified as being important means for a party to influence its chances of getting into parliament. They concern the party's resources, its political project and its external relations. In what ways can supply and management of resources, policies and relations with other parties affect the potential for becoming a parliamentary party? Through four in-depth case studies of new entrants into the Swedish national parliament, the Riksdag, the thesis concludes that there are some important commonalities in their paths to parliament. Especially with regard to their resources and their political project, the empirical evidence supports the initial premise: new party entrance is unthinkable without successful strategic behaviour.

The aim of this diploma thesis is to discuss new political parties in the context of the Czech party system. Movement ANO 2011 and Dawn of Direct Democracy are the researched subjects which broke through elections to the Chamber of Deputies in the Czech Republic in 2013. This multiple case study proceeds from the basic and ambiguously gripped notion political party to diverse theoretical aspects of newness, trying to briefly define the Czech party system in the context of new political parties. It is done in terms of legislative rules for (not only new) political parties and also from a developmental view. Afterwards the empirical part works with particular characteristics of two chosen subjects - it gradually focuses on their emergence and development, programme, the leader and members, electoral campaign and their participation in elections. The task of the individual characteristics is to introduce both subjects accurately so their common and different traits are obvious. The gained findings are later assessed by the view of the chosen Sikk's theory of newness. There is examined if ANO and Dawn fall into some of the categories defined by this theory. The diploma thesis tries to shift the state of knowledge of new Czech political parties and refers to the positives and negatives of the chosen...

Le Partido Verde brésilien, le Partido Ecologista chilien et le Proyecto Sur argentin sont des partis politiques appartenant à la mouvance des partis verts ou de tendance écologiste. Ils constituent, dans leurs pays respectifs, des forces politiques nouvelles, qui entendent se distinguer par l’affirmation d’une identité particulière, fondée sur la place centrale accordée à la protection de l’environnement et au développement durable ainsi que sur la volonté de « faire de la politique autrement ». Si les membres de ces partis estiment ainsi se démarquer de la gauche, ils s’en rapprochent néanmoins par les idées qu’ils défendent en matière sociétale, mais aussi en matière économique et sociale. Ils participent ainsi au mouvement plus vaste de recomposition de la gauche et se trouvent en concurrence avec les autres forces de gauche, dont ils partagent l’électorat. Ces trois partis ont émergé, dans un contexte de renouvellement démocratique, en lien avec les acteurs de la société civile. Ils continuent à entretenir des liens étroits avec le monde associatif, syndical et artistique. Leur organisation est fondée sur un modèle basé sur des principes démocratiques tels que le pluralisme, la représentativité, la territorialité. Néanmoins, comme leurs homologues d’Europe occidentale et d’Europe centrale et orientale, ils font face à la difficulté de mettre effectivement ces principes en œuvre dans leur fonctionnement quotidien et sont confrontés à un phénomène de concentration du pouvoir à la tête du parti. Si le Partido Eccologista chilien, le Partido Verde brésilien et le Proyecto Sur argentin ont chacun su occuper un espace jusqu’alors vacant sur la scène politique de leur pays respectif, leurs perspectives d’évolution et de développement demeurent incertaines. / The Partido Verde from Brazil, the Partido Ecologista from Chile and the Proyecto Sur from Argentina are political parties belonging to the movement of green or ecologist parties. They represent, in each country, new political forces which aim at differentiating themselves through a particular identity, built on the focus on sustainable development and the strong will to do politics in a new fashion. Members of those three political parties believe they are apart from left-wing activists. Nevertheless, they do share similar ideas, regarding societal issues, as well as economic and social questions. These parties appeared in a particular context, influenced by democratic renewal, in connection with civil society activists. They continue to keep strong ties with associations, unions, and artistic movements. Their organisation is based on democratic principles such as pluralism, representativeness and territoriality. However, like their European counterparts, they have trouble applying these principles in actual fact. They also face the issue of monopolized power by party leaders. The Partido Verde, the Partido Ecologista and the Proyecto Sur were able to fill a political vacuum in their respective countries, yet their prospects in terms of electoral success remain uncertain.