New Terms

Affidavit : A signed document submitted to an officer , where a person makes a sworn

statement regarding her personal information.

An Alliance: When several parties in a multi-party system join hands for the purpose

contesting elections and winning power, it is called an alliance or a front.

Bi-party system: Bi-party system is a type of system in which power alternates betw

two parties only. The party that gets the majority forms the government and the other

forms opposition.

Coalition government: A coalition government is generally formed in a multi-party

system, when no single party wins a majority of seats then many parties get together

on compromise and tolerance.

Defection: Changing party allegiance from the party on which a person got elected (to

legislative body) to a different party.

Election: An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population

chooses an individual to hold public office.

Mono-party system: Mono-party system is a political system in which only one party

controls and runs the government.

Multi-party system: It is a system in which several parties compete for power and m

than two parties have a reasonable chance of coming into power either on their own or

alliance with others.

Opposition : The political party or a group of parties that is a part of the Legislature ,

not a part of the government.

Political party : A political party is a group of people who come together to contest

elections and hold power in the government.

Partisanship : A tendency to take a side and in ability to take a balanced view on an

National party: A party that secures at least 6% of the total votes in Lok Sabha elect

or wins four seats in the Lok Sabha is recognized as a national party.

Regional party: All parties, other than the six national parties, are classified as state

parties by the Election Commission of India. They are also called regional parties.

Important Notes

Political Parties
Political parties are one of the most visible institutions in a democracy.
For the ordinary citizens, democracy is equal to political parties. It is
important to know the nature and working of political parties.

Meaning of Political Parties

A political party is a group of people who come together to contest
elections and hold power in the government.

All political parties have some policies and programmes for the society
with a view to promote the collective good. They try to persuade people
why their policies are better than others. They seek to implement their
policies by winning popular support through elections.

Political parties reflect fundamental political divisions in a society. All the

parties favour certain part of the society and thus they involve
partisanship.

A party is known by which part it stands for, which policies it supports

and whose interests it upholds.

Components of Political Parties

(i) The Leaders: A political party consists of leaders, who contest
elections and if they win they, perform the administrative job.

(ii) The Active Members: They are the ones, who climb a ladder from
being the follower and become the assistant of the leaders to gain
knowledge about politics.

(iii) The Followers: They are simply the ardent followers of the leaders
and work under the able guidance of the active members.

Functions of Political Parties

Political parties performs the following functions :

(i) Candidates are put forward by political parties to contest elections.

These candidates may be chosen by the top leaders or by members of the
party. In some countries like USA, members and supporters of a party
choose its candidate. In India top party leaders choose candidates for
contesting elections.

(ii) Parties put forward their policies and programmes for voters to choose
from them.

(iii) Political parties play a major role in making laws for the country. No
law can become a bill unless majority parties support it. Laws are debated
and passed in the Legislature.
(iv) Political parties form and run governments. The big policy decision
taken by political executive come from the political parties. Parties recruit
leaders, train them and make them ministers.

(v) Parties that lose election, play the role of opposition to the party in
power. They criticise government for their wrong policies and mobilise
opposition to the government.

(vi) Parties shape public opinion. They raise and highlight issues. Parties
have large number of members and activists spread all over the country.
Many of the pressure groups act as extension of political parties. Parties
sometimes also launch movements for the resolution of the problem faced
by the people.

(vii) Political parties provide people access to government machinery and

welfare schemes. It is easy for the public to approach their local party
leader than a government officer. The local party leader has to listen to
people’s need and demands, otherwise people can reject them in the next
elections.
Necessity of Political Parties

Political parties are needed because they perform variety of functions.

Modern democracies cannot exist without political parties. Without
existence of parties, following situations may occur :

(1) Every candidate in the elections will be independent. No one will be

able to make any promises to the people about any major policy changes.

(2) 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.

(3) The non-party based elections to the Panchayat occur in many states
of India. Here the parties do not contest formally. It is generally noticed
that the village gets split into more than one group, each of which puts up
a ‘panel’ of its candidates. This creates need for the political party.
Different Political Parties
The different countries around the world opt different party systems.
Broadly, political party system can be divided into following three
categories :
(a) One-Party System : In some countries, only one party is allowed to
control and run the government. There is no competition in this system.
The mono party nominates the candidates and the voters have only two
choices :-

(a) Not to vote at all or

(b) write ‘yes’ or ‘no’ against the name of the candidates nominated by
the party.
This system has been popular in Communist countries and other
authoritarian regimes, e.g., China, North Korea and Cuba. This system
was also prevalent in USSR till Communism collapsed.

(b) Two-Party System : Power changes between two major, dominant

parties. In this system, to win elections, the winner has to get a
maximum number of votes, but not necessarily a majority of votes. The
smaller parties usually merge with the bigger parties or they drop out of
elections. This parliamentary system prevails in Great Britain and the
United States of America, in which only two parties hold significant
numbers of seats. Supporters of this system believe that this prevents
dangers of fragmentation (too many parties winning seats from different
constituencies) and the government can run smoothly.

(c) Multi-Party System : It is the most common type of party system.

In this system, more than two parties have the capacity to gain control of
the government separately or in the coalition. When no party gains a
majority of the legislative seats in a multi-party parliamentary system,
then several parties join hands and form a coalition government.
Supporters of this system point out that it allows more points of views to
be represented in the government. Critics of this system point out that
the multi-party system sometimes leads to political instability.

Functions of the Ruling Parties

(i) They play a major role in making laws for the country.

(ii) They form the government and run the country.

(iii) They recruit leaders, train them and then make ministers to run the
government.

Functions of the Opposition Parties

(i) They oppose the government by voicing different views.

(ii) They criticise the government for its failure and wrong policies.

(iii) They mobilise opposition to the government.

Role of political parties in shaping public opinion as :

(i) They raise and highlight issues.

(ii) They form pressure groups as an extension.

(iii) They launch movement for the resolution of problems faced by the
people.

(iv) They have lakhs of members and activists.

Coalition of Parties
In India, 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 and winning, it is called alliance or front.

For example, the National Democratic Alliance(NDA)and the United

Progressive Alliance (UPA) in India.

Main features of two-party system :

(i) Power usually changes between two parties, several other parties may
exist.

(ii) In such a system, people get a clear choice.

(iii) The party that wins the majority forms the government and the other
sits in opposition.

(iv) Strong opposition is good for democracy.

(v) Prompt decisions are taken and implemented.

(vi) More development and less corruption.

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 multi-party system.

India adopted a multi-party system because:

(i) There is social and geographical diversity in India.

(ii) India is such a large country, which is not easily absorbed by two or
three parties.

(iii) The system allows a variety of interests and opinions to enjoy political
representation.

Merits :

(i) This system allows a variety of interests and opinions to enjoy political
representation.

(ii) People can make a choice between several candidates.

Demerits :

(i) No one party is likely to gain power alone. Therefore, it leads to

difficulty in formation of the government.
(ii) Leads to political instability and often appears to be very messy.

Ideal Party System

Party system evolves over a long time , depending on the nature of

society , its social and regional divisions and history of politics.

The social and geographical diversity of our country is not easily absorbed
by two or even three parties. Thus, India has a multiparty system.

Types of Political Parties

Democracies that follow a federal system all over the world tend to have
two kinds of political parties
(i) State Parties : Parties that are present in only one of the federal
units.

(ii) National Parties : Parties that are present in several or all units of
the federation.

In India, there are both National and State parties. Every party in the
country has to register with the Election Commission.

“Political parties are a necessary condition for a democracy” because :

(i) Without political parties, democracies cannot exist.

(ii) If we do not have political parties, in such a situation every candidate

in elections will be independent.

(iii) No one will be able to make any promises to the people about any
major policy changes.

(iv) The government may be formed but its utility will remain uncertain.

(v) Elected representatives will be accountable to their constituency for

what they do in their locality.

(vi) But no one will be responsible for how the country will run.

(vii) The role of an opposition party in a democracy necessitates the

existence of political parties.

(viii) As societies become large and complex, they also need some
agencies to gather different views on various issues and to present these
to the government, that’s why, political parties are needed.(Any

National Parties
A party that secures at least 6% of the total votes in Lok Sabha elections
or Assembly elections in 4 states and wins at least 4 seats in the Lok
Sabha, is recognised as a National Party.