 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 & programs for the society to promote the collective good

 Parties try to persuade people why their policies are better than others

 Parties seek to implement policies by winning popular support through elections

PARTISANSHIP- It’s a tendency to take a side and inability to take a balanced view on an issue
 Components of Political Party- 1. leaders 2. the active members 3.the followers

Functions Or Various roles played by Political parties

 1.To contest Election- in USA-members & supporters choose its candidates. In India- top party
leaders choose candidates

 2. To put forward policies and programs- a party reduces a vast multitude of opinions into a
few basic positions which it supports. A govt. is expected to base its policies by the ruling
party

 3. To make laws – laws are debated & discussed in the legislature, but most members belong
to a party so they go by direction of leadership

 4. To form and run governments- parties recruit leaders, train them and then make them
ministers to run the government

 5. Role of opposition – to criticize government for its failure or wrong policies and mobilize
opposition to the government

 6. to shape public opinion- to raise and highlight issue through members and pressure groups.
Parties launch movements to crystalize peoples’ opinion

 7. parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes – ordinary
citizens easily approach a local party leader than govt. officer. Parties are responsive to
people’s needs and demands otherwise people can reject parties.

Why modern democracies cannot exist without political Parties? OR

• Every candidate in the election will be independent so no one will be able to make any
promises to the people about any major policy changes

• The government will 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

• As societies became large and complex, they also needed some agency to gather different
views on various issues and to present these to govt.
 • They need some ways to bring various representatives together so that a responsible govt.
could be formed

• They needed a mechanism to support or restrain the govt., make policies, justify or oppose
them

How many parties should we have?

• One party System- In China, only the Communist Party is allowed to rule

• Bi-Party Or Two- Party System- power usually changes between two main parties, several
other parties may exist, contest election and win a few seats in the national legislatures. Ex.
USA & UK

• Multi- party System – 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.
Ex. India

• What is Coalition?- In this system, the govt. is formed by various parties coming together

• What is an alliance or a front? – when several parties in a multi party system join hands for
the purpose of contesting election and winning power

National/ State political parties

• Large & established parties get some special facilities by Election Commission, like Unique
symbol, such parties called recognized political parties

• Criteria for National Party- 1. A party that secures at least 6% of the total votes in an election to
the LOK SABHA elections OR Assembly elections in four states 2. Wins at least four seats

• Criteria for State Party- 1. A party that secures at least 6% of the total votes in an election to the
Legislative Assembly of a state 2. Wins at least two seats

Challenges to political parties

• Dynastic Succession – in many parties, the top positions are always controlled by members of
one family
• Lack of internal democracy – parties do not keep membership registers, do not hold
organizational meetings, no regular internal election, Ordinary members do not get sufficient
information on what happens inside the party
• Growing role of money and muscle power – parties focus only on winning elections, they use
short-cuts. They tend to nominate rich candidates or who can raise lots of money, Rich people
and Companies influence policies and decisions of party, in some cases parties support
criminals who can win elections

• No meaningful choice – in recent years there has been a decline in the ideological differences
among parties in most parts of world. In Britain the difference is very little. In India same set
of leaders keep shifting from one party to another
 How can parties be reformed???

Anti- defection law – 52nd amendment in the constitution (1985) to prevent elected MLA’s and
MP’s from changing parties… in such cases he/she will lose the seat in legislature

Affidavit – it is mandatory for every candidate to file an Affidavit giving details of his property
and criminal cases pending against him

Income tax – election Commission passed an order to hold parties organizational election and
file their income tax returns

• Suggest some ways to reform parties???? Internal Democracy – PP to maintain a register, to

• It should be mandatory for PP’s to give minimum number of tickets, about one-third to
women candidates, and quota for women in decision making process

• There should be state funding of elections – Petrol, paper , telephone etc or Cash on the basis
of votes secured by party

• People can put pressure on political parties – through petitions, publicity and agitations

Ordinary citizens, pressure groups and movements and media