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Given the historical strength of political parties like the Liberals and Conservatives in Colombia and AD and COPEI in Venezuela there was little reason to form new parties. However, a rash of new parties has appeared in recent years, in some instances replacing the dominant players. I contend that the appearance of ‘new’ actors has been precipitated by political reforms initiated in the last twenty years. This research evaluates the effects of electoral and political reforms on the appearance of ‘new’ parties in congress through a formal test of district level congressional elections in Colombia and Venezuela from 1982 to 2000. I explore changes in key variables, including district magnitude, and the timing of national and sub-national contests, across districts over time. I also contrast the effects of political reforms with explanations for the emergence of ‘new’ and distinctive parties, drawn from literature on party system change in developed nations. I employ a count model that accounts for the presence of a highly skewed dependent variable to analyze the district level data. Finally, I present data on the behavior of ‘new’ parties in congress, compared to traditional parties, and offer a few observations regarding the substantive effects of political and electoral reforms on the party system. This study aims to offer insight into the value of political reforms in increasing the number of actors in the democratic process, without necessarily increasing the number of representational alternatives in either system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]