The European party system reigned unchallenged for barely four decades

Evidence

When one considers the extraordinarily rapid decline of the Continental party system, one should bear in mind the very short life span of the whole institution. It existed nowhere before the nineteenth century, and in most European countries the formation of political parties took place only after 1848, so that its reign as an unchallenged institution in national politics lasted hardly four decades. During the last two decades of the nineteenth century, all the significant political developments in France, as well as in Austria-Hungary, already took place outside of and in opposition to parliamentary parties, while everywhere smaller imperialist “parties above parties” challenged the institution for the sake of popular support for an aggressive, expansionist foreign policy. — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 664

Categorization

• XREF: This historical dating of the party system’s fragility is directly useful for the Islamophobia field’s account of how postcolonial states inherit and then abandon weak party institutions. — connects to: Continental European party systems date only from 1848 onward — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2464; Institutions once deemed inevitable became unthinkable through political struggle — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 57; The 2008 crisis accelerated a decades-long party democracy decline — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 85
• SEED: Angle: the party system as a historically recent and fragile scaffolding — useful for essays on why political institutions cannot be taken as permanent.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 664

Broader Connections

• Continental European party systems date only from 1848 onward #corroborates (0.92) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2464
• Institutions once deemed inevitable became unthinkable through political struggle #expands (0.75) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 57