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Unit 10: Party System

in countries having a liberal-democratic order that competitive party system prevails and political Notes
recruitment is made from different political parties.
5. Political parties present issues; they set value goals for the society. All parties have philosophical
bases, no matter how blurred and no matter how divorced from the actual political behaviour
of the party they are. Though American political parties, what R. A. Dahl says, have ‘ideological
similarity and issue conflict’, they have no disagreement on the fundamental goals of the society.
The two parties of Ireland (Fianna Fail and Fine Gael) are prototypes of two parties of the
United States in respect of their ‘ideological similarity and issue conflict’ nature.
6. Political parties serve as the broker of ideas by selecting a number of issues and focussing
attention on them. In a democratic system revolutionary parties (or those hostile to the established
order as such) act not as conciliatory elements in aggregating the largest number of common
interest but as focal points of discontent and organised opposition. The compromise needed in
democratic political behaviour is never acceptable to them. These parties may adhere to the
political left, as the communist parties do, or to the right as done by the fascist party in Italy and
Nazi party in Germany (in the period before second World War), or the Poujadists in France, or
to revolutionary nationalism as with Aprista in Peru, or the Revolutionary Nationalist Movement
as in Bolivia. In a non-democratic system, revolutionary parties may not simply be the mechanism
through which the political system operates, they may be the real core of the system itself with
power being exercised by party leaders rather than by the government officials.
7. In newer and developing nations of the world where political habits and traditions are yet to
grow up, political parties perform the job of political modernisastion. That is, they strive to give
a particular shape to the government, provide the main link between different social and
economic groups, constitute the chief agency for political education and socialisation, break
down traditional barriers and act as the binding force in communities divided by groups based
on tribal affiliations, religious denomination or sectarian origin. The role of the Congress Party
in India may be said to be the best example of this kind where the great leaders played a
significant role in framing the constitution and then running the administration of the country
on the lines of parliamentary democracy so as to have secularisation of the pohty.
8. Political parties also perform social welfare functions that may be termed their ‘non-political’
activities. The parties work for the alleviation of the sufferings of the people during the days of
famine, drought, epidemics, wars etc. They also work for the eradication of social evils like
illiteracy, untouchability, ignorance, poverty etc. In Australia citizens may lead their life from
cradle to grave within the frame of organisations linked to a party which include not only trade
union and welfare groups but also stamp collecting societies, pigeon clubs, and weight-lifting
associations.
Viewed thus, we may not endosse the view of Bryce that political parties “have two main functions—
the promotion by argument of their principles and the carrying of decisions,” though this part of his
statement may be accepted that the main function of political parties is to offer politics and programmes
and translate them into action after being in power.

Political parties provide a link between the government and the people. They seek to
educate, instruct and activate the electorate. That is, they perform the job of political
mobilisation, secularisation and recruitment.
10.3 Kinds of Party System

The most simplified way of classifying different party systems is to put them into three broad
categories—one-party system, bi-party system, and multi-party system, though a student of empirical
political theory may discover some more forms within the three broad forms on the basis of a neater
division of the party systems. We may briefly discuss them as under:

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