Caramani, Daniele. "Party Systems". In Comparative Politics, edited by Daniele Caramani. 216-236, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Caramani, Daniele. "Party Systems". In Comparative Politics, edited by Daniele Caramani. 216-236, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

• The author identities a number of cleavages that generated most of the major disagreements underlying historical and contemporary political parties. These include: center-periphery divide, secularism-religious moralism divide, rural-urban divide, proletariate-bourgeoisie divide, communism-socialism divide, materialism-values divide, and the pro-anti globalization divide (219-221).
  These divides certainly do not exist in all countries, nor does this list cover all possible divides. It merely summarizes many of the divides common in Western Europe (222). 
• Generally four ideal types of party systems exist, not including one-party systems and authoritarian hegemonic party systems. These are two-party systems, democratic dominant party systems -- where one party consistently wins close to a majority of the vote -- multiparty systems, and bipolar systems -- where two multiparty coalitions exist (223).
• Anthony Down created the market model of elections in 1957, in his book 'An Economic Theory of Democracy', which political parties in terms of rational market actors, attempting to appeal to the needs of 'consumer' voters and thus secure a greater share of the 'market' of votes by shifting their ideological position vis-a-vis other parties (230-231).
  His model of parties as rational actors has been used to explain the transition of political parties, particularly on the left, from mass movements tied to labor unions into professionalized parties designed to achieve greater shares of the vote without being tied to particular interests (231-232).