Political Parties
Affidavit : : A signed document submitted to
an officer, where a person makes a sworn
statement regarding his or her personal
information.
Defection : Changing party allegiance from
the party on which a person got elected (to a
legislative body) to a different party.
Election commission : It is an
independent multi-member body
(at present 3 members) which is
responsible for the superintendence,
direction and conduct of elections
in the country.
Rajiv Kumar
(CEC of India)
Opposition : The political party or a group of parties
that are a part of the legislature, but not have
sufficient majority to form the government.
Partisan : A person who is
strongly committed to a party,
group or faction.
Partisanship is marked by
a tendency to take a
side and inability to take
a balanced view on an
issue.
Ruling party : Political party that runs
government.
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.
parties reflect fundamental political divisions in a
society
Parties are about a part of the society and thus
involve PARTISANSHIP.
Thus a party is known by which part it stands for,
which policies it supports and whose interests
it upholds
A political party has three components:
1,The leaders
2,Active Members
3,The Followers
Define a political party
Name the three components
Characteristics
Changing party allegiance from
the party on which a person got elected (to a
legislative body) to a different party.
It is called -
A, Defection
B, Affidavit
C,Opposition
D,Partisan
Functions of a Political party
1,Parties contest elections.
In most democracies, elections are fought mainly
among the political parties through the candidates
put up by them.
(In US members and supported chose candidates
In India leaders chose candidates )
They put up candidates for the election and try to
get the elected
2,Parties put forward different policies and
programmes and the voters choose from them.
In democracy people hold different views on what policies
are useful for the society and the country
Political parties group various opinions together and
provide on what policy should be framed by the
government
A government is supposed to frame its policies on the line
taken by the ruling party
3, Role in making laws for a country.
Laws are passed by 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.
4,Parties form and run governments
The party which gets an absolute majority in the
legislature forms the government and runs the
administration of the country.
If no party gets absolute majority, then several
parties join each other to form an alliance and form a
government.
4, Role of opposition
Political Parties which lose in the election, form the
opposition. They criticise the government for its
wrong policies and keep it under check.
They also mobilise the people against the
government for wrong policies.
5, To shape public opinion
Political parties, through their public meetings and
the media, educate the masses about the various
problems facing the country. Sometimes, they also
launch movements for the resolution
6, Access to government machinery and
welfare schemes of the government:
For an ordinary citizen it is easy to contact a local
party leader than a government officer.
Local party leaders help an ordinary citizen to get
his/her work done.
Q,Describe any four functions political parties
perform in a democratic setup
Necessity
We can understand the necessity of political
parties by imagining a situation without
parties.
Without political parties formation of a stable
government is not possible
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.
The government may be formed, but its utility will
remain ever uncertain. No one will be responsible for
how the country will be run.
To gather public opinion
As societies become large, they need some agency
to-gather different views of the people on various issues,
and to present these to the government.
This can be done by the political parties through their
members.
Thus, political parties are a necessary condition for the
working of democracy.
"Political parties are a necessary condition for a
democracy". Analyse the statement with examples.
(Cbse 2016)
How many parties should we have?
In a democracy any group of citizens is
free to form a political party. In this
formal sense, there are a large number
of political parties in each country. More
than 750 parties are registered with the
Election Commission of India.
There are three types of party system
● One party system ( single party system)
● Two party system ( Bi - party system)
● Multi party system
One party system / single party system
Under the system only one party is allowed to function.
Any other political party is not allowed, hence no
opposition party. The same party runs administration.
Political party and government follow a single ideology.
China is governed under this system. The only party in
China is Communist Party.
Others - Vietnam, Cuba,North Korea
Two party system ( Bi - party system)
Under this system, in a country, there are only two
major parties. One party functions as party in power;
the other party is in opposition. Other parties may
also exist, but they are very small.
Power usually changes between two main parties
Democratic VS Republican
Labour party VS Conservative
Multi-Party System
Under this system, there are several number of political
parties in a country.
Party with majority of representatives forms the
government; other parties acts as opposition parties.
India has multiple-party system. Some time, if no single
party has majority, two or more parties come together to
form government.
This system appears very messy and leads to
political instability.
At the same time, this system allows a variety of
interests and opinions to enjoy political repre-
sentation.
Q,Why do we have a multi-party system in India?
India is a vast country with many social and geographical
diversities. People speak different languages, follow
different religions. They have different customs and
traditions. Some regions are very prosperous while others
are underdeveloped and backward.
As a result, all the diversities cannot be absorbed and
looked after only by one or two parties.
When several parties in a multi-party system
join hands for the purpose of con- testing
elections and winning power, it is called an
alliance or a front.
India there were three such major alliances in 2004
parliamentary elections– the National
Democratic Alliance, the United
Progressive Alliance and the Left Front.
