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The paper deals with issues of conceptualization of regional parties & regional party arrangements. Regional parties could be defined briefly as independent formations with regional identity, region-based legitimacy & region-based electoral resources. The territorial aspect of their identity & of their modus operandi is the crucial one in this respect. Regional parties must not be mistaken for regional branches of state-wide or supra-regional parties, which are not fully autonomous, independent units. Similarly, it is necessary to distinguish between regional party systems & regional party subsystems. The basic difference between them consists in the presence or absence of relevant regional party or parties. The paper argues that new suitable conceptual frameworks are needed to develop a sophisticated explanation of various combinations of the systemic properties of regional parties & of their patterned interactions within regional as well as state-wide party arrangements. A multi-level approach should be fostered which would enable to assess thoroughly the differing opportunity structures & the nature of territorial-political operational space of regional parties. This might result in the making of complex models of territorial & party-political pluralisms. 26 References. Adapted from the source document.

The major purpose of the article is to assess the contribution of the study of parties and party arrangements in Southeast Asian and Oceanian (particularly Melanesian and Polynesian) polities to contemporary comparative party research, as well as to party theory-building. The sub-continental frameworks of Southeast Asia and Oceania offer a large range of opportunities for comparative enterprises. However, the development of innovative theorizing drawing from investigations into Southeast Asian and Oceanian party phenomena has been constrained by persisting inconsistencies in the conceptualization and/or categorization of party arrangements, and -- even more importantly -- by a low awareness of methodological and epistemological problems that are involved in cross-area comparisons. The authors argue that a reassessment of research strategies is needed in order to change this situation. Adapted from the source document.