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The belief that modern democracy is party democracy is widespread. However, the belief may be questioned. A number of small independent island states that subscribe to a high extent to democratic values, standards, and institutions manage without political parties. In all, six such cases exist, namely, Belau (Palau), the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, and Tuvalu. The analysis of these cases is guided by three general assumptions: (a) the impact of diminutive size on the existence and number of parties, (b) the corresponding impact of geographical noncontiguity, and (c) the impact of culturally defined resistances against party life and party rule. Comparisons with conditions in other small island states suggest that the assumptions are valid given that extreme values are entered into the analysis. Extreme smallness, an extremely archipelagic geography, and an intense cultural resistance all contribute to an absence of political parties in democracies.

In a recent book on "Democracy and Development" (1992) Axel Hadenius stumbles over the observation that island states are of special interest: on a scale running from 0 to 10, the average level of democracy is 7.1 for island states while for others it is 3.6. This, according to Hadenius, is due to the fact that island states are far more Protestant dominated than others. Contesting this view, three points are argued in this article. First, the attempt to explain away the relationship between insularity and democracy by introducing Protestantism into the explanatory design is questioned on grounds of methodology, the leading argument being that comparative analyses should not treat differences in factors like Protestantism as matters of degree. A second argument is about concept‐stretching: the overall travel capacity of concepts like Protestantism is questioned for the universe of small island states, where custom and the accommodation of traditional authority must be credited with filtrating functions. Secondly, theoretical reasons and empirical illustrations are introduced to suggest that one is well advised to consider small island states as a separate category, imbued with democracy and democratic procedures. Thirdly, due notice is taken of the fact that several small island states, such as Cape Verde, the Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, the Seychelles and Western Samoa, have undergone transitions to democracy during the time span after Hadenius's research (1988), the level of democracy for small island states therefore being now even higher.

This study aims to determine the characteristics of party systems within the context of electoral systems, forms of government, and continents. There is no study in the literature that quantitatively reveals the relationship between the party system and forms of government. Furthermore, this study differs from other studies in that it deals with the relationship between the electoral system and the party system on a global scale. In the study, the effective number of parties (ENEP and ENPP) was calculated for the last three legislative elections of the countries governed by presidential, president–parliamentary, premier–presidential and parliamentary forms of government, using the Laakso–Taagepera Index. The dataset was then analyzed with ANOVA and post-hoc tests. The study revealed that party systems do not differ significantly from forms of government, that is, forms of government do not determine party systems. Similarly, party systems do not significantly differ in terms of the continents, that is, there are no continental party system characteristics of the forms of government. Also, the study confirmed that it is the electoral system that determines the party systems.