POLITICAL PARTIES (QUESTION/ANSWERS)

Q1) What is a political party?

A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold
power in the government. They agree on some policies and programmes for the society
with a view to promote the collective good.A political party ,therefore,possesses features
like an organisation,definite views on political issues, a well formulated line of action,a will
and desire to implement the proclaimed policies.

Q2) What do you mean by partisan and partisanship?

A partisan is a person who is strongly committed to a party, group or faction and

partisanship is marked by a tendency to take a side and inability to take a balanced view on
an issue.

Q3) Mention three components of a political party?

A political party has three components: the leaders, the active members and the followers.

Q4) State the various functions political parties perform in a democracy.

The political parties perform various functions in a democracy;

Parties contest elections In most democracies, elections are fought mainly among the
candidates put up by political parties. Parties select their candidates in different ways. In
some countries, such as the USA, members and supporters of a party choose its candidates.
In other countries like India, top party leaders choose candidates for contesting elections.

Parties put forward different policies and programmes and the voters choose from
them.Parties have their own ideologies and programmes.These are put forward before the
voters at the time of elections in the form of a manifesto.

Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country 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 opinions.

Parties form and run governments The big policy decisions are taken by political executive
that comes from the political parties. Parties recruit leaders, train them and then make
them ministers to run the government in the way they want.

Those parties that lose in the elections play the role of opposition to the parties in power,
by voicing different views and criticising government for its failures or wrong policies.
Opposition parties also mobilise opposition to the government

Q5) Why modern democracies cannot exist without political parties?

We can understand the necessity of political parties by imagining a situation without
parties. Every candidate in the elections will be independent. So no one will be able to make
any promises to the people about any major policy changes. The government may be
formed, but its utility will remain ever uncertain. Elected representatives will be accountable
to their constituency for what they do in the locality. But no one will be responsible for how
the country will be run.

In our country, we have non-party based elections to the panchayat in many states.
Although, the parties do not contest formally, it is generally noticed that the village gets
split into more than one faction, each of which puts up a ‘panel’ of its candidates. This is
exactly what the party does. That is the reason we find political parties in almost all
countries of the world, whether these countries are big or small, old or new, developed or
developing.

The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative

democracies. As societies became large and complex, they also needed some agency to
gather different views on various issues and to present these to the government. They
needed some ways, to bring various representatives together so that a responsible
government could be formed. They needed a mechanism to support or restrain the
government, make policies, justify or oppose them. Political parties fulfill these needs that
every representative government has. We can say that parties are a necessary condition for
a democracy.

Q6) What are the different kinds of party systems?

There are three types of party system;

One party system:

In some countries, only one party is allowed to control and run the government.

Eg.in China, only the Communist Party is allowed to rule.

We cannot consider one-party system as a good option because this is not a democratic
option. Any democratic system must allow at least two parties to compete in elections and
provide a fair chance for the competing parties to come to power.

Two party system:

In some countries, power usually changes between two main parties.

Several other parties may exist, contest elections and win a few seats in the national
legislatures. But only the two main parties have a serious chance of winning majority of
seats to form government.The United States of America and the United Kingdom are
examples of two-party system.
Multi-party system:

If several parties compete for power, and more than two parties have a reasonable chance
of coming to power either on their own strength or in alliance with others, we call it a
multiparty system. Thus in India, we have a multiparty system.

In this system, the government is formed by various parties coming together in a coalition.
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.

For example, in India there were three such major alliances in 2004 parliamentary elections– the
National Democratic Alliance, the United Progressive Alliance and the Left Front.

The multiparty system often appears very messy and leads to political instability. At the same time,
this system allows a variety of interests and opinions to enjoy political representation

Q7)Why did India adopt a multi party system?

Party system is not something any country can choose. It evolves over a long time, depending on the
nature of society, its social and regional divisions, its history of politics and its system of elections.

Each country develops a party system that is conditioned by its special circumstances. For example,
if India has evolved a multiparty system, it is because the social and geographical diversity in such a
large country is not easily absorbed by two or even three parties.

No system is ideal for all countries and all situations.

Q8) What are state parties and national parties?

The Election Commission has laid down detailed criteria of the proportion of votes and seats that a
party must get in order to be a recognised party.

A party that secures at least six per cent of the total votes in an election to the Legislative Assembly
of a State and wins at least two seats is recognised as a State party.

A party that secures at least six per cent of the total votes in Lok Sabha elections or Assembly
elections in four States and wins at least four seats in the Lok Sabha is recognised as a national
party

Prepared by sunila vivek kumar