Party thresholds for registration and resources - Mechanical hurdles or promoting genuine political discourse

Minimum membership thresholds are commonly used in democracies as a criterion for political party registration. These thresholds can have the empowering quality of showing a specified level of popular support for a party and/or its ideology, policies, or leader, but are often a simple mathematical test for a new party, without requirements for political activism or internal party democracy. Thresholds for registration, and/or for access to state resources, impact on the style and scope of political discourse in a democracy, and can also be used as a mechanism to limit political competition. This article provides an international focus centering on three countries. Two countries, Australia and New Zealand, are developed democracies with well-established regulatory regimes. The third country, Papua New Guinea, provides a contrast as a developing democracy attempting to strengthen its party system through regulation. The article provides a comparative analysis of the mechanical nature of membership thresholds, and of further thresholds that impact on parties' ability to be part of the national political narrative.