Political Parties

Dr. M Jashim Uddin

NSU
 Definition of Political Party
 A political party is an alliance of like-minded people who work
together to win elections and control the government.

 Political parties compete against one another for political power and
for the ability to put their philosophies and policies into effect. The
political parties agree on some specific public policies for a society
with a view to promote collective good.

 A political party has 3 components: leaders, activists and supporters.

 Political Parties
 Roskin mentioned that political parties have existed since the first
decade of the new government’s existence in America. Americans
have always had ambivalent feelings about them.

 Parties are necessary, and they perform vital functions. But they
have always been complicated, full of internal conflict, disorganized
and decentralized, rigid but capable of being taken over by
reformers.

 Parties often mirror American society and are deeply rooted in the
democratic process.
 Functions of Political Parties
• In both democracies and authoritarian system, parties perform
several important functions. The functions of political parties are
described below:

I. A bridge between People and Government: Political parties have a

vital role in building relations between people and government.
Political parties are major “inputting” devices, allowing citizens to
get their needs and wishes heard by government.

II. Aggregation of Interests: Parties help tame and calm interest

groups conflicts by interest aggregation— pulling together their
separate interests into a larger organization. The interest groups
then find that they must moderate their demands, cooperate, and
work for the good of the party. In return they achieve at least some
of their goals.
 Functions of Political Parties
• III. Integration into the Political System: Parties usually welcome
new groups into their ranks, giving them a say into the formation of
party platforms. This gives the groups stake in supporting the
overall political system. For instances, British labor party and the
U.S. Democratic party enrolled workers by demanding union rights,
fair labor practices, welfare benefits, and educational opportunities.

• IV. Political Socialization: One of the key functions of parties is to

teach their members how to play the game. Parties introduce their
respective candidates or elected officials to the citizens, and show
them how to speak in public, to conduct public meetings, and to
compromise, thus deepening their political competence.
• A Political Party is also a training ground for leaders.
 Functions of Political Parties
• V. Mobilization of Voters: In election campaigning for their
candidates, parties mobilize voters– thumping up interest and
boosting turnout, e.g., the U.S. election in 2008 and 2012.
• Without party advertising, many citizens would ignore elections.
There is a causal relation between weak U.S. political parties and
low voter turnout.

• VI. Organization of Government: The winning party appoints the

chamber’s leaders and committee chairpersons in the congress. In
America, a new president can appoint some 3000 people to
executive departments, allowing the party to steer policy for at least
four years.

• Party control of government in Britain is tighter than America. What

a prime minister wants, he or she usually gets because party
discipline is much stronger.
 Classifying Party Systems
• The simplest way to classify party systems is to count the number of
parties in them: one, two or multiparty. Authors put “dominant-
party” system in between one and two party.

• In between two and multiparty, authors put “two-plus party system.”

Dictators like obedient parties to support them. And some systems
may be messy authors call them fluid party.

• One Party System: It is a twentieth-century phenomenon, associated

with totalitarian or authoritarian regimes, that lingers into the 21
century, e.g., the former Soviet Union, China and many of the
emerging nations. They have a single party that control every level
of government. The leaders of such parties rationalize that they are
still democratic because they represent what the people want.
 Classifying Party Systems
• Dominant Party System: In contrast to one-party systems,
opposition parties in dominant-party systems contest elections, but
do not have a chance. The dominant party is well organized and
offers many inducements— such as job and payoffs— to supporters.
Most importantly it controls television. Competing parties are
deliberately kept weak. Some currently democratic nations had
dominant parties; Indian Congress Party, Japan’s Liberal Democratic
Party (LDP). The voters got fed up with the dominant parties and
voted for regime change.

• Putin’s United Russia Party is an example of a dominant party in the

today’s world, according to the authors.
 Classifying Party Systems
• Two-Party Systems: In two great democracies, the Britain and the
U.S., two party systems have been observed. Here two major parties
have about an equal chance of winning.
• The third parties such as the U.S. Libertarians and Britain’s Liberal
Democratic serve to remind the big parties of voter discontent.
Some observers argue that new political ideas come mostly from
third parties.

• Multiparty Systems: Multi-party systems have several competing

parties. The Swedish party system has eight parties arrayed on a left-
to-right spectrum. Each party receives seats in parliament in
proportion to its share of the vote. Although this system is criticized
as being unstable, successful examples are there; Israel, Netherlands.
 Classifying Party Systems
• Two-Plus Party Systems: Many democratic countries now have two-
plus party systems. Germany has large Christian Democratic and
Social Democratic parties, but the Free Democratic, Green, and Left
parties win enough votes to make them politically important. Austria
and Spain are also the examples of two-plus party systems.
• Britain is usually referred to as a two-party system, but in 2010,
Britain’s Liberal Democrats formed a coalition with Conservatives
because neither of the two big parties had a majority.
 Classifying Party Systems
• Fluid Party Systems: New and unstable democracies often have
party systems so fluid and inchoate they change before your eyes
and fit none of the previous categories. “Mess” is the only way to
describe them. In such countries, parties rise and fall quickly.

• Fluid parties are poorly organized and fall apart. Charismatic Latin
American politicians often invent new parties, but they rarely last.
• Putin’s Unity Party was formed just before the 1999 election and by
2004 turned it into Russia’s largest party. According to author it is
just a tool for Putin to govern.
 Classifying Party Systems
• As a concluding words, Roskin and others argued that as long as
there are at least two parties, the system is called “competitive party
system,” the essence of which is to hold back corruption. A single
party that locks itself in power, whatever its ideological rational,
inevitably becomes corrupt.

• They also argued that in one party systems or one party dominated
systems, the friends and families of the party leaders stash millions
of ill-gotten gains in foreign banks investments and properties.
 Are Parties Fading?

• Parties are not what they used to be. In most democracies, party
membership is down, and voters are less loyal. Voters have less
confidence in political parties.
• What is the reason?
• The ideological clashes of the twentieth century are over; most
major parties are centrist and similar.
• The mass media, the interest groups and think tanks have taken
over some of the functions of parties. But what will take the place of
parties?
• Dependent on big money, parties fall under special-interest
influence.
 Are Parties Fading?
 U.S. political parties are weakly organized and decentralized—in
effect, every congressional district and state has its own parties, little
related to each other— they do not cohere well at the national level.
For example, a politician said, “ I belong to no organized party, sir.
I’m a democrat.”
 The key political parties in the US do not offer voters much to
choose from. They are aiming for the political center.
 Authors raised a question: Can anything be done?
 Party and party systems are rooted in their countries’ history,
society, and institutions. The U.S. Constitution never recognized
parties.
 Are Parties Fading?
 Americans who share most basic values, may not need more than
two parties to express their general divisions. Realistically,
American two party-system may remain.

 Information technology is helping centralize the parties;

computerized mailing lists induce state and local party organizations
to cooperate with national headquarters.