It doesn't really matter. What matters is that they are REAL political parties, with their own principles, philosophy and vision about how they want to run the government and what they want the country to become, not merely vessels for getting their members elected!
I say this because I've seen the process of decline happen to my land of birth the Philippines. Initially we had a 2 party democracy - the Nationalistas and Liberals were almost an exact copy of the American system. Within a few decades however things slowly slipped. By the 1960s members who aren't doing so well in one party would jump ship to the other one for career purposes. Gone were all sense of integrity and party loyalty.
And then Marcos came along, created his own super party the KBL, and the 2 old venerable parties declined. By 1986 when a bloodless revolution deposed the dictator, both the old parties were already completely inept and couldn't be counted on to make any impact politically. New parties were formed and we became a multi-party democracy.
But these new parties were nothing like the original ones. They have no history, no political vision or anything. They are formed only for the express purpose of contesting the next elections and are frequently disbanded afterwards if they lose. And even if they win, political manueverings mean that they would most likely be merged with other parties or split up into 2 or more separate parties later on. It's so confusing I can't even remember any of their names.
Our politicians have done one better than the old system of jumping ship when they're not happy. They now create their own parties instead.
Thus the chaos that is Philippine politics.
