This article outlines what is meant by a parliamentary form of government and analyzes how such regimes vary in the postwar advanced industrial democracies. A wide range of variables are discussed and measured annually. Factor analysis is used to produce eight different aspects of parliamentarianism. The first two of these yield a twodimensional analysis. Based on these two key factors, it is argued that there are three main types of parliamentary systems: (1) those of cabinet dominance; (2) those that are polarized with a central role for a fragmented parliament; and (3) those of cooperative policy-making diffusion with a working parliament. Generally, the first and third of these are polar opposite types, yet they each manifest greater cabinet durability than the cluster of polarized systems.
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