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Unit 13: Political Parties

Party System at Work: We have seen that the American party system lacks the essential traits of a Notes
responsible party system finding their place in a party’s adopting a reasonably clear programme and
having some centralised authority to exercise effective control over all subordinate units. Though
either of the two parties wins national elections relating to the offices of the President, the Senators
and the Representatives, it is difficult to say as to what mandate is with it. One may draw some broad
points from the survey of important utterances made by the candidates during the time of election
campaigns, but a thing like voters’ mandate is either missing altogether or it is too general, even
vague, not explicit. And yet the working of the American party system shows that they perform,
though with uneven success, on account of this fact that they are only one of the several forces working
towards co-ordination in the government.
A study of the American party system in its operational dimension reveals that they are very active
at the time of the elections of the President, the Senators and the Representatives. It does not mean
that they are out of work after the election business is over. Their prominent role can be understood
when the session of the Congress starts. Matters relating to the election of the Speaker, formation of
the committees and the election of their chairmen, introduction of bills and debates thereon etc. are
all conducted on party lines. The appointments made by the President are governed by party
consideration, so is with their ratification by Senate. The result is that the highest bureaucrats of the
country are usually of the same party as the President aids in communication and co-ordination. In
this way, the party ‘helps to bind the disparate formal institutions of the political system together.”

The members of the President’s party in the Congress form a natural starting point
for his attempts to influence the Congress and, for this reason, are called “President’s
friends”.

Since the American constitutional system is based on the principle of separation of powers, decision-
making agencies are different and also disparate. The parties play the role of a co-ordinator. At the
same time, the supplementary structure of checks and balances enables them to establish a sort of
interlinking bond between different organs of the department. Thus, we find that President not being
a member of the Congress manages to influence the legislative behaviour. It also happens that while
the Presidency is captured by one party, the Congress by another. In such a situation there occurs the
‘deadlock of democracy’. And yet it is the loose party system of the United States that acts as the
resolver of conflicts. One may ask as to how does it happen? The answer is that often persons “jump
the party tracks and work at cross-purposes with their fellow party member. This occurs within the
Congress, within the bureaucracy, between the Congress and the President, between the President
and the bureaucracy, and on and on.”
Critical Appreciation: The party system of the United States and the United Kingdom resemble in a
few but differ in many respects. First, we take up the case of some points of resemblance. In the first
place, both countries are well-known for having a bi-party system. The Conservative and the Labour
parties in England and the Democrats and the Republicans in the United States are the examples of
the two major parties. Moreover, while some other or minor parties exist in both the countries, they
have no real significance as the alternation of power invariably takes place between the two leading
parties. One may say that, is rather a superficial point as the very nature of the American party
system is basically different from that of the United Kingdom. Second, party system in both countries
is a matter of extra-constitutional growth. Political parties have no place in the written parts of the
constitutions of the two countries under reference. The evolution of party system in both countries is
a matter of conventional development.
The points of difference between the American and British party systems are vital. In the first place,
while British party system stands on the basis of the principles or a definite ideology, there is nothing
like it in the case of the American party system. American parties have never been bodies of men
united on some general principles into concrete form by legislation and by administration. It is
considered wise to begin by accepting the fact that the emptiness of the names of the two great

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