Assessing Stability in New Zealand's First Era of Multiparty Politics,1911-1935

Abstract

The phase of multiparty politics from 1911-1935 provides an opportunity to apply modern political science techniques for the study of party competition to an important period of New Zealand's history. This article initially seeks to reconcile the three-partyformat with the workings of the simple plurality or 'first-past-the-post' (FPP) electoral system. Although normally associated with the maintenance of two-party systems, for the period under study the reductive effect of FPP on the number of parties was mitigated by the spatial pattern of support for the Liberal, Reform and Labour parties. The focus of the article then shifts in an attempt to determine whether the persistence of multiparty parliaments during this period led to unstable government. The initial findings are derived by measuring cabinet duration and identifying the modes of termination, but their value is limited due to the operational difficulties inherent in matching detached analysis to the political reality of the time. As with the investigation into the effects of the electoral system on the party system, a wider range of variables (which are more difficult to measure) need to be canvassed to provide a more balanced assessment of governmental stability in this period.