Party systems may be broken down into three broad categories: two-party, multiparty, and single-party. Such a classification is based not merely on the number of parties operating within a particular country but on a variety of distinctive features that the three systems exhibit. Two-party and multiparty systems represent means of organizing political conflict within pluralistic societies and are thus part of the apparatus of democracy. Single parties usually operate in situations in which genuine political conflict is not tolerated. This broad statement is, however, subject to qualification, for, although single parties do not usually permit the expression of points of view that are fundamentally opposed to the party line or ideology, there may well be intense conflict within these limits over policy within the party itself. And even within a two-party or a multiparty system, debate may become so stymied and a particular coalition of interests so entrenched that the democratic process is seriously compromised.          

Political Party Systems

• Multiparty system
• Two-party system 
• Single party system

The distinction between two-party and multiparty systems is not as easily made as it might appear. In any two-party system there are invariably small parties in addition to the two major parties, and there is always the possibility that a third, small party prevents one of the two main parties from gaining a majority of seats in the legislature. This is the case with regard to the Liberal Party in Great Britain, for example. Other countries do not fall clearly into either category; thus, Austria and Germany only approximate the two-party system. It is not simply a question of the number of parties that determines the nature of the two-party system; many other elements are of importance, the extent of party discipline in particular. There have been three historical forms of the single-party system: communist, fascist, and that found in the developing countries.

Cadre parties—i.e., parties dominated by politically elite groups of activists—developed in Europe and America during the 19th century. Except in some of the states of the United States, France from 1848, and the German Empire from 1871, the suffrage was largely restricted to taxpayers and property owners, and, even when the right to vote was given to larger numbers of people, political influence was essentially limited to a very small segment of the population. The mass of people were limited to the role of spectators rather than that of active participants.By the end of the 19th century the excesses of the machines and the bosses and the closed character of the parties led to the development of primary elections, in which party nominees for office were selected. The primary movement deprived party leaders of the right to dictate candidates for election. A majority of the states adopted the primary system in one form or another between 1900 and 1920. The aim of the system was to make the parties more democratic by opening them up to the general public in the hope of counterbalancing the influence of the party committees. In practice, the aim was not realized, for the committees retained the upper hand in the selection of candidates for the primaries.

Political parties types 

• Cadre parties

• Mass-based parties 
  

Cadre parties normally organize a relatively small number of party adherents. Mass-based parties, on the other hand, unite hundreds of thousands of followers, sometimes millions. But the number of members is not the only criterion of a mass-based party. The essential factor is that such a party attempts to base itself on an appeal to the masses. It attempts to organize not only those who are influential or well known or those who represent special interest groups but rather any citizen who is willing to join the party. If such a party succeeds in gathering only a few adherents, then it is mass based only in potential. It remains, nevertheless, different from the cadre-type parties.