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Unit 13: Political Parties

pressure groups and may be taken not as ‘transmission belts’ but as alternative political blocs. One of Notes
the most important of these new groups was the Democratic Russia Movement which formed the
base of support for Yeltsin’s leadership. It represented a broad coalition of forces, opposed to the
dominance of the Communist party which wanted Russia to gain enough autonomy to move more
quickly to the direction of market reform and democratization, concepts that were still only vaguely
defined at that time”.
Russia has a multi-party system. About half a dozen parties take part in the Presidential and
Parliamentary elections and manage to secure sizeable number of votes. Still, the party system is in a
formative stage. These parties are known by the name of their supreme leaders which shows that
they are formed not on the basis of some clear-out programme but on the personality of a leader.
They do not have a firm social base or their stable constituencies. The process of fragmentation and
polarisation is also at work as a result of which the parties and electoral coalitions are fluid. Parties
and blocs frequently splinter, join with others, and rename themselves making it difficult for the
public to hold parties and politicians accountable for their actions (or inaction) and to know whom to
vote for (or against). Alternative policy approaches are not clearly articulated by a viable opposition
party or coalition. As a result of all this fragmentation and flux, many voters have become apathetic
or confused. The weakness of political parties has also hindered the government’s ability to develop
a firm base of political support for its policies”.
The multi-party system of the Russian Federation is dis-organised and indisciplined. There are more
than two dozen parties and blocs, big and small, as Agrarian Party, All-Russian Union for Reunion,
Democratic Party of Russia, Majority Party, New Names, Our Home is Russia, Party of Economic
Freedom, Russian All-People’s Union, Russia’s Democratic Choice, Free Labour Party, Peasants Party
of Russia, Republican Party of Russia, Social Democratic Party of Russian Federation, Communist
Party of Russia, Liberal Democratic Party, Congress of Russian Communities, Forward Russia, Party
of Russian Unity and Accord, Democratic Russian Movement, Free Democratic Party of Russia etc.
Some parties are like blocs as Women of Russia and Yabloko. Derzhava is an alliance of some parties
as Russian Christian Democratic Movement, State Renaissance Party, Soyuz and Social Democratic
People’s Party.
None but the Communist Party of Russia has an ideology of its own. It stands on the principles of
Marxism-Leninism. The policies and programmes of other parties are vague and when some party
fights for interest of a particular section of the people, it looks like an interest group. For instance, the
Agrarian Party and Peasants Party of Russia fight for the interests of the farmers and demand
agricultural reforms along with dissolution of collective farm system. Other parties as Party of
Economic Freedom and Republican Party of Russia demand mixed economy and liberalisation in the
economic sphere. The Social Democratic Party of the Russian Federation has a socialist programme
as it demands a democratic system ensuring social participation of the employers and the workers
and protection of human rights. It may be taken as a mildly leftist organisation. The Russian Christian
Democratic Movement and Majority Party have a rightist orientation.
Political Parties in the France

France is ill-known not for having a multi-party system as for leaving an observer baffled in drawing
plausible conclusions from the drama of complication and simplification of political parties and groups,
including ‘clubs’ and ‘families’, in which the rightists, the leftists, and the centrists have peculiar
roles to play. One is perplexed at the spectacle of different organisations coming closer on one occasion
and running for on another, merging with one today and splitting with another tomorrow, now
presenting one configuration and then switching over to another with the result that a serious observer
develops certain impressions that enthuse him to jump from one point to another without being
capable of laying down certain definite rules of the political behaviour of different parties and groups.
Party System

The French party system “is unique in the Western world, and probably in the world as well”. The
reason for this should be traced in the special traits that the party system of this country possesses
and which may be enumerated as under:

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