Editing Political party (section)

===Non-partisan systems===
{{Main|Non-partisan democracy}}
[[File:NorthWest Territories Legislature Plan 2014 19 Members.svg|thumb|upright=1|right|In a non-partisan legislature, like the [[Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories]], every member runs and legislates as a political independent with no party affiliation.]]
In a non-partisan system, no political parties exist, or political parties are not a major part of the political system. There are very few [[list of countries without political parties|countries without political parties]].<ref name=schattschneider42>{{cite book |first=E. E. |last=Schattschneider |author-link=Elmer Eric Schattschneider |year=1942 |title=Party Government |publisher=Holt, Rinehart, and Winston |page=1 |isbn=978-1412830508}}</ref>

In some non-partisan countries, the formation of parties is explicitly banned by law.<ref name=veenendaal16/> The existence of political parties may be banned in autocratic countries in order to prevent a turnover in power.<ref name=nytimes11/> For example, in [[Saudi Arabia]], a ban on political parties has been used as a tool for protecting the monarchy.<ref name=nytimes11>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/world/middleeast/11briefs-Saudi.html |title=Saudi Arabia: Political Party Formed |work=The New York Times |date=10 February 2011 |access-date=20 January 2021 |archive-date=27 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127224519/https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/world/middleeast/11briefs-Saudi.html |url-status=live }}</ref> However, parties are also banned in some polities that have long democratic histories, usually in local or regional elections of countries that have strong national party systems.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Brian F. Schaffner |author2=Matthew Streb |author3=Gerald Wright |title=Tearns Without Uniforms: The Nonpartisan Ballot in State and Local Elections |journal=Political Research Quarterly |volume=54 |issue=1 |pages=7–30 |date=1 March 2001 |doi=10.1177/106591290105400101|s2cid=17440529 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=M. O. |last=Dickerson |year=1992 |title=Whose North?: Political Change, Political Development, and Self-government in the Northwest Territories |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |page=9 |isbn=978-0774804189}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Nancy |last=Northup |title=Local Nonpartisan Elections, Political Parties and the First Amendment |journal=Columbia Law Review |volume=87 |issue=7 |pages=1677–1701 |date=December 1987|doi=10.2307/1122744|jstor=1122744 }}</ref>

Political parties may also temporarily cease to exist in countries that have either only been established recently, or that have experienced a major upheaval in their politics and have not yet returned to a stable system of political parties. For example, the United States began as a non-partisan democracy, and it evolved a stable system of political parties over the course of many decades.<ref name = "Aldrich95"/>{{rp|ch.4}} A country's party system may also dissolve and take time to re-form, leaving a period of minimal or no party system, such as in Peru following the regime of [[Alberto Fujimori]].<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Steven Levitsky |author2=Maxwell A. Cameron |title=Democracy Without Parties? Political Parties and Regime Change in Fujimori's Peru |journal=Latin American Politics and Society |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=1–33 |date=19 December 2008 |doi=10.1111/j.1548-2456.2003.tb00248.x|s2cid=153626617 }}</ref> However, it is also possible{{snd}}albeit rare{{snd}}for countries with no bans on political parties, and which have not experienced a major disruption, to nevertheless have no political parties: there are a small number of pacific island democracies, such as [[Palau]], where political parties are permitted to exist and yet parties are not an important part of national politics.<ref name=veenendaal16>{{cite journal |first=Wouter P. |last=Veenendaal |title=How democracy functions without parties: The Republic of Palau |journal=Party Politics |volume=22 |issue=1 |pages=27–36 |year=2013 |doi=10.1177/1354068813509524|s2cid=144651495 }}</ref>