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Unit 10: Party System

two have a smaller left-wing party. The five remaining countries are multiparty systems with a Notes
dominant party, three of them having a dominant socialist party opposed by a divided right, largely
because of the presence of an agrarian sentiment in the countries concerned, while the other two
have a strong right-wing party opposed by a divided left, largely because of the presence of a
substantial Communist party. Although America is considered a two-party system, there are hundreds
of smaller third parties and minor parties that play an integral role in American politics. Most of
these small parties will never come close to sending legislators to Washington. Others like Minnesota’s
depression-era Farmer-Labour Party would prove vital to the evolution of politics in the state. The
Democratic Party is the largest and oldest party in America. It is a liberal party, which denotes its
tendency to favor farmers, workers, underrepresented minorities, and unions. The party frowns
upon the unchecked power of businesses and strives to reform the tax system to benefit the lower
classes. Their voter base includes African Americans, environmentalists, Catholics, Jews, and in
general, those with lower annual incomes. Their support spikes in major urban areas. Although
fiscally centrist, the party has established itself as socially liberal. The party supports programmes
like affirmative action and many of its members favour the legalisation of gay marriage, the abolition
of the death penalty, and an economy buttressed by government intervention. The Republican Party
is also known as the “Grand Old Party,” or GOP.
Mass Parties
1. Socialist Parties: Socialist candidates and election programmemes pre-dated socialist parties.
The British Labour Party was founded in 1900, as the Labour Representation Committee, one of
its components being the Independent Labour Party, founded in 1893. The oldest socialist party
in a leading country is the German Social Democratic Party, the SPD, which can trace its origins
to the German Workers’ Party, whose Gotha Programmeme of 1875, was fiercely criticized by
Marx. The first socialist candidate in a US presidential election ran in 1892, (and got 0.19 per
cent of the vote); no socialist party has ever established itself there. Although there were
prominent socialists in France during the Revolution (and during the uprising of 1848, the
continuous history of socialist parties in France dates back only to 1905. The reason for the late
development of socialist parties was the late enfranchisement of the working class, where their
mass support has always lain. Hardly had socialist parties started to benefit from the widening
of the franchise when they were split as under by the First World War. Many of the leaders of
the socialist movements in combatant countries continued to preach international socialism,
but their followers deserted them. Only when the war was going very badly for all combatants
did anti-war socialism revive, in 1916-18.
2. A Political Party: It described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application
of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government. The name
originates from the 1848, tract Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels.
The Leninist concept of a communist party encompases a larger political system and includes
not only an ideological orientation but also a wide set of organisational policies. There currently
exist hundreds, if not thousands, of communist parties, large and small, throughout the world.
Their success rates vary widely: some are growing; others are in decline. In five countries (the
People’s Republic of China, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, and Vietnam) communist parties retain
dominance over the state.
3. Fascist Parties: The National Fascist Party was an Italian party, created by Benito Mussolini as
the political expression of fascism. The party ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943, under an authoritarian
system. It is currently the only party whose reformation is explicitly banned by the Constitution
of Italy: “it shall be forbidden to reorganise, under any form whatever, the dissolved fascist
party” (“Transitory and Final Provisions”, Disposition XII).
Intermediate Type Parties

Some of the Communist parties in power in developing countries do not differ significantly from
their counterparts in industrialised countries. This is certainly true of the Communist Party of the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Workers’ Party of North Korea. There have always been,

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