The large number of new parties appearing in western democracies and their actual and potential impacts offer important avenues of research on parties in general. This paper reviews work on the definition and enumeration of new parties, their variability, classification and distinctiveness, and the development and testing of theory concern ing new parties. It suggests areas of research that, in the author's view, will provide evidence of the need to integrate an understanding of new-party phenomena in the broader spectrum of political studies.
