Page 256 - DPOL202_COMPARATIVE_POLITICS_AND_GOVERNMENT_ENGLISH

Unit 10: Party System

parties. The Liberal and the Communist parties are there, but they have hardly any place of Notes
significance.
• The stability of government has its natural effect on the efficiency of administration. The
government is in a position to maintain and effectively pursue its policies and programmes.
• Each major party plays a positive and constructive role so as to win the sympathy of the electorate.
It behaves in a very responsible way so that the other party may not cash political capital out of
its objectionable act of commission and omission.
• It is said that the division of the nation into only two political parties “must obviously be more
or less unreal or arbitrary, since it would be absurd to suggest that there could ever be only two
schools of thought in a nation.”
• The large number of political parties creates a lot of confusion. It is possible that no party is in
a position to have stable majority. As a result, the government would not enjoy stability.
Coalitions may be formed and deformed from time to time with the result that the tenure of a
government is as short as that of a month as in the case of French cabinets under the Fourth
Republic (1946-58).
• The mushroom growth of political parties coupled with the fact of their frequent fragmentation
and polarisation obstruct the creation of a healthy public opinion and a healthy opposition
capable of offering sound prospects of an alternative government in the country.
• Political parties have an importance of their own in modern times of democracy that “rests in
its hopes and doubts upon the party system. There is the political centre of gravity.” A party
acts as the vehicle of ideas and opinions of the people and a powerful instrument for holding
elections.
• Parties unite the people of a country by means of political mobilsation and recruitment. They
not only place issues and matters before them, they give national character to local and regional
issues.
• The parliamentary form of government cannot operate without the role of political parties. The
party getting majority in the elections forms the government and other parties form the
opposition. The Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party and theministers are his
partymen. If the ruling party resigns, the opposition parties may be given the chance to form
the alternative govenment.
• Political parties, in most of the cases, fight for their own interests. The members look at every
important point from the viewpoint of their party interest. As a result, in many situations, the
general interest is sacrificed at the altar of sectional interests.
• Parties become an instrument in the hand’s of vested interests. Big social and economic
organisations hire politicians for their selfish purposes. They finance political parties and provide
them necessary resources for contesting elections.
10.5 Key-Words

1. Polarisation : It is the process by which the public opinion divides goes to the extremes.
2. Dictatorship : As an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by
an individual-a dictator.
10.6 Review Questions

1. What do you mean by Party System?
2. Discuss the functions of political parties.
3. Explain the kinds of party
4. Define party system.

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