Political Parties

Political Parties:

• A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government.   
• A political party has three components:   
  (i) the leaders,
  (ii) the active members, and
  (iii) the followers 
• Political parties serve as a link between common people, democracy, representation, and elections. Whatever we read or hear about politics is about political parties. All democratic systems have political parties. Only in a democracy do political parties compete with one another. 
• You must have seen some groups, institutions, and organizations working to achieve some objective in your school and surroundings. Some organizations take the lead in resolving social issues. You may have read about the various movements and their work.  
• Political parties contest in elections, just as there are active groups, institutions, and movements. Political parties are a type of social organization, but there is a distinction between them and other institutions and organizations in society. The distinction is in the goals and political parties' working styles and other organizations.  
• On this background, we can say that when people form organizations with the objective of achieving political power and participating in the electoral process, such organizations are called political parties. Political parties thus can be described as a group of people who aim to contest elections, win elections and get power and establish the government of their party. 

Characteristics of Political parties:

1. To be in power: The main objective of political parties is to achieve power through elections. In order to get power, political parties compete with each other. There is nothing wrong with this competition, but the competition should be fair.  
2. To pursue an ideology: Every political party has some policies and world views. Parties take a specific stance concerning social issues. These together make party ideology. Those who think about any specific party ideology as acceptable support that political party. Social support received by a political party is called the ‘mass base’ of a political party. It has become difficult to differentiate between political parties on the basis of ideologies as nowadays ideologies of all political parties seem to be the same.  
3. To have a Party Agenda: Political parties plan their party's agenda on the foundation of party ideology. They implement the agenda after they get political power. Even if they do not get political power, political parties try to get the support of people on the basis of this agenda. 
4. To Establish a government: Political parties form the government and rule the country. The government has been formed by the political party which gets the majority in elections. The parties which do not get the majority act as opposition parties. 
5. To act as a link between the Government and the people: Political Parties act as a link between the government and the people. Political parties convey to the government the people's demands and complaints. Through political parties, the government attempts to gain public support for its policies and programmes.