KHALIDA KHAN
BA.LLB. (Hons) (SEM-2) (REGULAR)
POLITICAL SCIENCE-II
ROLL NO: 32
PARTY SYSTEM IN INDIA
The party system is a necessary equipment and an integral; part of representative
government. Hence, the structure of government is influenced by the nature of the party
system. "The character of the political system of any modern state is substantially dictated
by the manner m which political forces are organized in a party system 1. For a long Time,
party systems have been classified on the basis of the number of parties - whether one, two
or more than two. By now, however, there is a near unanimous agreement chat the
distinction among one-party, two party, and multiparty systems are highly inadequate. As
such, the traditional classification of the party system which is based on numerical criterion
is inadequate because all party systems except a few come under the multiparty system.
multiparty system in terms of numbers.
In order to understand the characteristics of two-party systems, we have to consider the
types of party systems which are categorized on the basis of more than one criterion. It has
been noted that ‘’A typology is a more complex matter: It is an ordering of attribute
compounds," i.e. an ordering resulting from more than one criterion 2. The types of party
system may be categorized broadly on the basis of following criteria;
1. Number
2. Strength
3. Competitiveness
1 Morris-Jones, W.H., "Parliament and the Dominant parties Indian Experience", Parliamentary Affairs
,1964, p.296.
2 Quoted in Sartori, Giovanni, op.cit., p.125.
In such a kind of typology of the party system wo cannot count all political parties in a
party system. As such, it is quite difficult to find a yardstick to count or discount the parties.
But this task is very well done by Giovanni Sartori. He says “we can discount the parties
that have neither (i)Coalition potential nor (ii) blackmail potential. Conversely, we must
count all the parties' that Have either a governmental relevance in the coalition forming
arena, or a competitive relevance in the oppositional arena ‘’. 3
There are three types of Party-system in India:
• One-Party System
• Two-Party System
• Multi-Party System
One-Party system
In a one-party system, there is no competition in this system. Here, the lone party nominates
the candidates and the voters have only two choices i.e.
• Not to vote at all or
• write ‘yes’ or ‘no’ against the name of the candidates nominated by the party
Such a political system has been prominent in authoritarian regimes and communist
countries such as China, North Korea, and Cuba. Before the collapse of communism, this
system was also prevalent in USSR.
Two-party System
In a two-party system, the power shifts between two major, dominant parties. So, for
winning the elections, the winner will have to get the maximum number of votes. However,
please know that maximum number of votes is not equivalent to a majority of votes.
So, the smaller parties tend to merge with the bigger parties or they drop out of elections.
Such a parliamentary system prevails in Canada and Great Britain, in which there are two
parties holding the maximum numbers of seats.
3 Sartori, Giovanni, op.cit., p.123.
Multi-Party System
The third and the most common form of government is the multi-party system. In such a
system, there are three or more parties which have the capacity to gain control of the
government separately or in a coalition.
In case, no party achieves a clear majority of the legislative seats, then several parties join
forces and form a coalition government. Countries like India, follow a multi-party system.
Some people are of the view, that a multi-party system often leads to political instability in
a country.
Indian Party system is unique. Since independence the system has passed through
various stages of growth:
(i) 1952-64 _the epoch of national consensus-the Nehru Era;
(ii) 1964-69- the uneasy transition marked by the emergence of a multi-party situation;
(iii) 1969- 75—the period of new consensus and of increasing inter-party conflict;
(iv) 1975-77—the Emergency authoritarian period:
(v) 1977-80—the Janata phase of coalitional politics;
(vi) 1980-89—the new phase of tussle between the Congress in the Centre and the regional
parties in the states;
(vii) Since 1989 the situation showed a clear trend of decline of Congress hegemony and
emergence of multi- Party system and a coalitionist phase:
(viii) Era of Coalition government.
Coalitions Politics in India
A spate of minority and coalition governments at the Center due to the fragmentation of
the party system has laid bare the vulnerability of the process of governance due to political
uncertainty and instability of governments. 4 Coalition alliances are neither 'ideological' nor
have any common objective to cement them together, they are merely short-term tactical
4 “Party system in India: Emerging Trajectories”, Ajay K.Mehra
arrangements established by ambitious politicians that are rooted in the exchange of mutual
benefits and compulsions of power. Coalitional characteristic of parties is not unique to the
national level political parties. Even in the state level parties, one comes across multiple
voices under a single banner.
CONCLUSION
Political parties in an earlier era were primarily consensual in nature. There used to be a
basic consensus on matters of policy and leadership. There were, of course, factions and
dissensions. Whenever the consensus broke down, either a party faced a split or a new
consensus; therefore, a new image emerged. Today the political parties in India are
coalitional rather than consensual. So, it can be seen that during the last two decades Indian
parties and the party system have undergone remarkable changes. The changes are not
simply in the number of parties or their relative strength. There has been a qualitative
transformation in the manner in which each party perceives its role in politics and in its
interaction with other political parties. India’s party system has been under flux,
transformation and reconfiguration. By the time the sun set on the twentieth century, the
party system in India had developed a plurality of national and regional levels. But this
change in the party system in India is also an echo of the helpless condition of a modern
liberal democratic order. Hopefully when cultures and forms of life would come to interact
deeply with one another and when Indians would find themselves in the cross-currents of
many cultural traditions, a new constitutive element of Indian political community would
emerge. In such a situation, the emerging scenario of the Indian party system, segmented
pluralism, would add strength to a maturing democracy.
