Recent political events have forced an examination of ideologies of populism and nationalism in politics. While there has been some focus on the alignments and differences between nationalism and populism, there has been less focus on the means but which such identity-based parties come to power. In this review piece, I first sketch some of the recent literature on the post-2016 identity politics, to provide an overview of the updated debates on party politics. I then outline a survey of electoral and party systems literature, and indicate some reasons that majoritarian electoral systems and presidential systems appear more likely to foster the dominance of such parties. Finally, I consider points of alignment in the content of populism and nationalism as ideologies – and how they can be used as political strategies.