Democracy counts: why the average political party lasts for only 43 years

Britain has a tradition of long-established political groupings – but in other democratic countries, the left, right and centre constantly reinvent themselves. Vive la change?

England’s – later Britain’s – parliamentary system has been around in some form since at least the 13th century. So it ought not to come as a surprise that our political parties have proved to be unusually durable, too.

After all, the Conservative party emerged in its modern configuration in the years after the 1832 Reform Act. Labour was founded in 1900. The SNP, in many ways the new kid on the block at Westminster, dates from 1928, and Plaid Cymru from 1925. Sinn Féin is older still, established in 1905. But, by international standards, they are all dinosaurs.

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from The Guardian http://ift.tt/2gqhic5