Plus ça change … ? Anti-Party Sentiment and Electoral System Change: A New Zealand Case Study

Abstract

Anti-party sentiment tends to be seen as a relatively recent problem for the world's democracies. Evidence from our case study, however, suggests that all its familiar symptoms were present years ago, and that they tend to fluctuate with time and chance. Therefore, while institutional reform may help to alleviate what is essentially a chronic problem punctuated by acute episodes, it is unlikely to offer a cure. Both the proponents and opponents of electoral system change in other Commonwealth countries are likely to find that it probably will not make things worse, but it may not make them very much better.