POLITICAL PARTIES

FUNCTIONS OF POL. PARTIES

A pol. party is a grp of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the govt.

the party which wins majority seats in legislature forms govt. (ruling party)

the party which doesnt win in legislature forms opposition

Features of pol. parties

  1. they agree on some policies and programmes for the society with a view to promote the collective good
  1. since there can be diff. views on what is good for all, parties try to persuade people why their policies are better than others
  1. they seek to implement these policies by winning popular support thro elections

Components of pol. parties

thus parties reflect fundamental pol. divisions in a society. parties are about a part of the society and thus involve PARTISANSHIP

  1. leaders
  1. active members
  1. followers

thus a party is known by which part it stands for, which policies it supports and whose interests it upholds

partisanship- a person who is strongly commited to a party, grp or faction

  1. CONTEST ELECTIONS

Pol. parties select their candidates and contest elections

eg. in USA members and supporters of a party choose its candidates. in India, top party leaders choose candidates for contesting elections

  1. PROMOTION OF DIFF. POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES

parties put together diff. policies and programmes and voters can choose from them. in a democracy, large no. of similar opinions have to be grouped together. a party reduces a vast multitude of opnions into a few basic opinions which it supports. a govt. is expected to base its policies on the lines taken by the RULING PARTY

  1. DECISIVE ROLE IN MAKING LAWS

formally, laws are debated and passed in the legislature. but since most of the members belong to a party, they go by the direction of the party leadership irrespective of their personal opinion.

  1. PARTIES FORM AND RUN GOVT.

big policy decisions are taken by pol. executive that comes from the pol. parties. parties recruit leaders, train them and then make them ministers to run the govt. in the way they want.

  1. PLAYS THE ROLE OF RESPONSIBLE OPPOSITION

those parties that lose in the elections play the role of opposition to the parties in power by voicing diff. views and criticising govt. for its failure or wrong policies

  1. SHAPE PUBLIC OPINION

they raise and highlight issues. many of the pressure grps are the extensions of pol. parties among diff. sections of society. parties sometimes also launch movements for the resolution of problems faced by people. often opinions in the society crystallise on the lines parties take

  1. PROVIDE PEOPLE ACCESS TO GOVT. MACINERY AND WELFARE SCHEMES IMPLEMENTED BY GOVTS.

for an ordinary citizen it is easy to approach a local party leader than a govt. officer. thats why, they feel close to parties even when they dont fully trust them. parties have to be responsive to peoples needs and demands otherwise people can reject those parties in the next elections

Necessity of pol. parties

  1. they bring various representatives together so that a responsible govt. could be formed
  1. they need a mechanism to support or restrain the govt., make policies, justify or oppose them
  1. pol. parties fulfill these needs that every representative govt. has

therefore, we can say that parties are a necesary condition for a democracy

PARTY SYSTEM

  1. ONE - PARTY SYSTEM

in some countries only one party is allowed to control and run the govt. it is not considered a good option bc its not a democratic option

  1. TWO- PARTY SYSTEM

Eg. China

power usually changes btw 2 main parties

eg. usa and uk

  1. MULTIPARTY SYSTEM

several parties compete for power, and more than 2 parties have a reasonable chance of coming to power either on their own stregth or in alliance with others

eg. india

when several parties in a multi-party system join hands for the purpose of contesting elections and winning power, it is called an ALLIANCE or a FRONT

The multiparty system often appears very messy and leads to pol. instability

this system allows a variety of interests and opinions to enjoy pol. representation

ELECTION COMMISSION

while the commission treats all parties equally, it offers some special facilities to large and established parties

  1. these parties are given a unique symbol- only the official candidates of that party can use that election symbol
  1. these parties are recgonised by the commission and hence called 'recgonised pol. parties'

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NATIONAL PARTIES

STATE / REGIONAL PARTIES

a party that secures a least 6% of the t. votes in an election to the legislative assembly of a state and wins at least 2 seats

regional parties exist, operate and function at regional levels. a regional party has a regional outlook as it gives prominence to regional issues and specific problems of people of that region and influence people of that region

eg. shiv sena, aam admi party

a party that secures at least 6% of the t. votes in lok sabha or assembly elections in 4 states and wins at least 4 seats in the lok sabha

these are country- wide parties. they have their units in various states. by and large all their units follow the same politics, programmes and strategies that are decided at national level

eg. congress, bjp

ROLE OF REGIONAL PARTIES

  1. In the last 3 decades the no. and strength of regional parties has expanded which has made our parliament more diverse
  1. these days not a single national party is able to secure a majority in lok sabha. therefore national parties form alliance with regional parties
  1. since 1996 state parties have got an opportunity to be part of the national level coalition govt. this strengthens our democracy and federalism

CHALLENGES TO POL. PARTIES

1.Lack of internal democracy

there is a tendency in pol. parties towards concentration of power in one or few leaders at the top. parties dont hold organisational meetings or conduct internal elections. since 1 or 2 leaders are imp., those who disagree with them find it hard to continue in the party

  1. Dynastic succession
  1. Use of money and muscle power
  1. Lack of meaningful choice to voters

there are very few ways for ordinary people or workers to rise to top in a pol party. in many parties, the top positions are held by members of 1 family. this is bad for democracy as people who dont have enough experience and popular support come to occupy top and imp positions

sometimes party tend to use short-cuts to win elections. they tend to nominate those candidates who have or can raise lots of money. rich people and companies who give funds to the parties tend to hsve influence on the policies and decisions of the party. in some cases, parties support criminals who can win elections

in recent yrs there has been a decline in the ideologial diff.s among parties. those who want really diff. policies have no option available to them. sometimes people cant even elect very diff. leaders either, bc the same set of leaders keep shifting from 1 party to another

EFFORTS TO REFORM PARTIES

  1. DEFECTION

the constitution was amended to prevent elected MLAs and MPs from changing parties. done bc many elected representatives were indulging in defection in order to become ministers or for cash rewards. now the law says that if any MLA or MP changes parties, he or she will lose the seat in the legislature

  1. AFFIDAVIT

the supreme court passed an order to reduce the influence of money and criminals. now, it is mandatory for every candidate who contests elections to file an affidavit giving details of his property and criminal cases pending against him

  1. INCOME TAX RETURN

the election passed an order making it necessary for pol. parties to hold their organisational elections and file their income tax returns

SUGGESTIONS TO REFORM PARTIES

  1. a law should be made to regulate the internal affairs of pol. parties. it should be made compulsory for pol. parties to maintain a register of its members, to follow its own constitution, to have an independent authority, to act as a judge in case of party disputes, to hold open elections to the highest posts
  1. it should be mandatory for pol. parties to give a min no. of tickets, about 1/3 to women candidates
  1. there should be a quota for women in the decision making bodies of the party
  1. there should be state funding of elections. the govt. should give parties money to support their election expenses

ROLE OF PEOPLE IN REFORMING PARTIES

  1. people can put pressure on pol. parties this can be done thro petitions, publicity and agitations
  1. pol.parties can improve if those who want this join pol. parties. the quality of democracy depends on the degree of public participation
  1. ordinary citizens, pressure grps and movements and the media play an imp role in this. if pol. parties feel that they would lose public support by not taking up reforms, they would become more serious about reforms