Why do we need political parties?

 Political parties are easily one of the most visible institutions in a democracy.
 Parties have become identified with social and political divisions.
 About 100 years ago there were a few countries of the world that had any political party: Now there are
few that do not have parties.
Meaning:
 Political party: a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the govt.
 They agree on some policies and programs for the society with a view to promoting the collective good.
 Parties reflect fundamental political divisions in a society. Parties are a part of the society and thus
involve partnership
 A political party has three components:
I) The leaders,
II) The active members
III) The followers
Functions:
 Contest elections: In most democracies, elections are fought mainly among the candidates put up by
political parties.
 put forward different policies and programmes and the voters choose from them.
 Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country. Formally, laws are debated and passed in the
legislature.
 Parties form and run the government: big policy decisions are taken by the political executive that
comes from the political parties
 Those parties that lose in the elections play the role of opposition to the parties in power, by voicing
different views and criticizing the government for its failures or wrong policies
 shape public opinion: They raise and highlight issues. Parties have lacs of members and activists spread
all over the country
 provide access to govt. machinery and welfare schemes implemented by governments.
Necessity:
 The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative democracies.
 large scale societies need representative democracies.
 Political parties fulfil the needs that every representative government has.

How many parties should we have?

 In a democracy, any group of citizens is free to form the political party.
 there are a large number of political parties in each country.
 More than 750 parties are registered with the Election Commission of India.
 One party system: In some countries, only one party is allowed to control and run the government Ex.
China
 One party system is not good because this is not a democratic option.
 A democratic system must allow at least two parties to compete in the election and provide a fair
chance for the competing parties to come to the power.
 Two party system: power usually changes between two main parties and only they have a serious
chance of forming govt.
 Multi-party system: more than two parties have a reasonable chance of coming to power either on their
own strength or in alliance with others
 Alliance/ front: When several parties in a multi-party system join hands for the purpose of contesting
elections and winning power
 The multi-party system is messy and leads to political instability but it allows a variety of interests and
opinions to enjoy political representation

National political parties:

  parties that are present in only one of the federal units and parties that are present in several or all units
of federation.
 Every party has to register with the Election Commission. Election Commission treats all parties
equally but offers some special facilities to large and established parties.
 Parties that get privilege and some other special facilities are ‘recognised’ by the Election Commission
for this purpose. (recognised political parties)
 national recognised parties in the country in 2006:

I) Indian National Congress (INC) –1885

-ruled from 1947-77, 1980-89, 2004-14 (in alliance)
-principle: secularism, welfare of minority and weaker sections

II) Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) –1980

-ruled from 1998-2004 (in alliance- NDA)
- principle: cultural nationalism (Hindutva), uniform civil code, ban on religious conversion

III) Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) – 1984

-principle: empowerment of Bahujan Samaj (SC,ST,OBC, religious minorities)
- states- UP, MP, Chattisgarh, Punjab

IV) Communist Party of Indian-Marxist (CPIM) – 1964

-split from CPI
-principle: socialism, secularism
-states: West Bengal, kerala, punjab

V) Communist Party of India (CPI) – 1925

-principle: socialism, secularism

VI) Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – 1999

- split from Congress
- -principle: secularism, social justice, federalism
- -states: Maharashtra, Meghalaya

State party
1. Other than these six parties, most of the major parties of the country are classified by the Election
Commission as ‘State parties’.
2. Parties like the
I) Samajwadi party,
II) Samata party and Rashtriya Janta Dal have national level political organization with units in several states.
3. Some of these parties like Biju Janta Dal, Sikkim Democratic Front and Mizo national Front are conscious
about their state identity.
4. Over the last three decades, the number and strength of these parties has expanded.
Challenges to political parties
1. All over the world, people express strong dissatisfaction with the failure of political parties to perform their
functions as well.
2. The first challenge is lack of internal democracy within parties. All over the world there is a tendency in
political parties towards the concentration of power in one or few leaders at the top.
3. The leaders assume greater power to make decisions in the name of the party.
4. Since one or few leaders exercise paramount power in the party, those who disagree with the leadership find
it difficult to continue in the party.
5. The second challenge of the dynastic succession is related to the first one. Since most political parties do not
practice open and transparent procedures for their functioning, there are very few ways for an ordinary worker
to rise to the top in a party.
6. The third challenge is about the growing role of money and muscle power in parties, especially during
elections.
7. Rich people and companies who give funds to the parties tend to have influence on the policies and
decisions of the parties tend to have influence on the policies and decision of the party.
8. In some cases, parties support criminals who can win elections.
9. The fourth challenge is that very often parties do not seem to offer a meaningful choice to the voters.
How can parties be reformed?
1. Let us look at some of the recent efforts and suggestions in our country to reform political parties and its
leaders:
I) The Constitution was amended to prevent elected MLAs and MPs from changing parties. This was done
because many elected representatives were indulging in DEFECTION in order to become ministers or for cash
rewards.
II) The Supreme Court passed an order to reduce the influence of money and criminals.
III) The Election Commission passed an order making it necessary for political parties to hold their
organizational elections and file their income tax returns.
Besides these, many suggestions are often made to reform political parties:
I) A law should be made to regulate the internal affairs of political parties. It should be made compulsory for
political parties to maintain a register of its members.
II) It should be made mandatory for political parties to give a minimum number of tickets, about one-third, to
women candidates.
III) There should be state funding of elections. The government should give parties money to support their
elections expenses.
2. These suggestions have not yet been accepted by political parties.
3. There are two other ways in which political parties can be reformed.
4. One, people can put pressure on political parties. This can be done through petition, publicity, and agitation.