Friday, August 16, 2019
Political Party Systems Essay
         First, we should ask ourselves what a political party is. A political party is an organization that aims to attain political powers so that could form the government. Political parties are vehicles to democracy. The number of political parties in one country depends on historical events. Some countries have many parties which all of them are represented in the government. Other countries have only two big parties. In a country’s like china, Cuba and most African states have one party system. This single party system is what leads to dictatorship .Political parties mobilize voters across the country. Their role in political life is to draw political agendas, appointing candidates to public offices; they assess the works of those selected in offices, allocating resources to the projects that can help the society at large. Though political parties complete with each other to get in to parliament, they must work together once in parliament so that development can be achieved.            In most developing nations, political parties grow or develop around one particular person who is regarded as their leader. He is believed that he could steer his people in the right direction and bring notable change in the system. There are some challenges that political parties face for example, they must develop and make the parties identity unique and strong.            In this essay, I am going to discuss in depth on all that appertains to political parties. That is how they are formed, their roles and their types. Political parties try to harmonize the relationship between the arms of the government like executive and the legislature. In parliamentary systems, the party leader who’s dominate becomes the prime minister because of his status as a leader and because the party with the majority of the votes takes control of legislative and executive branches. In this system, party’s discipline must be emphasized because if leaders may deviate from the rules of the party then the government may collapse thus bringing legislature to its end. Individuals who do not act in accordance with the party’s interests are thrown out and are not allowed to take positions in that party in the future. This is mostly the punishment they get. In this form of government, the party with the majority votes forms the next government while the losers join to form the opposition government. This opposition side acts as checks and balances of the ruling government’s power. They strategize and expose the weakness of the ruling party. They control the government from misusing its power by highlighting these mistakes. This opposition government is vital and useful in parliamentary systems because lack of it can mean the government is formed by single party. This is what promotes dictatorship like in many countries in Africa and china.            Another form of party system is the government system. In this form of government the relationship that exists between the legislature and the chief executive powers is very weak unlike in parliamentary types of government.            There are various types of party systems. For example, there is one party system, two party system and multi system. In a single party system the candidates are nominated or appointed by that party only. There is no room for the government if they exist are organized or formed not only on partisan but also on their interest. It is argued that the legislature can work better than in other governments because the legislators do not pursue different interests for they do not compete. Basically single party systems promote dictatorship or executive do domination then parties that practice multi-party because of having the upper hand in controlling the resources political and legal means of stopping other parties from introducing competition to them. They use this privilege as a tool of suppressing other parties whereby small parties become puppets of the ruling government (Aldrich J.A., 1995)            Another type of party system is of two-party system. In this form of system the power to control the government lies between two big parties in that country even though there are other small parties which are represented in the government. Those who are opposed to this type of government argue that if one party is controlling the executive arm end the other dominant party is controlling the legislature the end up pursuing different goals and interest. This may lead to the political turmoil. An eventuality like this might make voters loose interest during the voting time. This is because voters fail to see the reason for voting. It is argued by many theorists that many parties can promote stability in the country and allow people from diverse communities to express their say and choices.            The third type of party system is multi-party system there all small parties may combine their seats to form the government. This is done when it is evident that one party alone cannot manage t o form the next government. Thus different parties come together to form an affiliation party or what is commonly known as a coalition. By doing this government manages to have seats in the parliament and thus it can easily make and pass its legislations more easily. This government being stronger than other parties can shoot down the legislations which are raised by other parties and those that are centrally to their development agendas. They do this by voting against these bills. For this form of government affiliated parties must first of all confirm to their individual legal framework and then to that of the coalition. A government which is formed by affiliated parties can work for sometime but it often faces governing difficulties as each of these parties has its own interests that it would like to pursue that are why countries with one party system do not allow multi-partism.            There has also been an argument about a no party state. Is it really possible? The Ugandan president Kaguta Museveni who is the leader of the national resistance movement (NRM) has been working on a system of government that is not formed by any party. It is being called a movement government which is designed to reverse the Uganda’s past record of ethnic based violence coups as well as constitutional issues. He also took power by overthrowing the then government planned a transition in his government by creating a constitution in 1995 which stated that the president would be elected after every five years.            Parties enforce members to stick by the laid down rules and to create a network of communication within the legislature. They lay down the procedures for rewarding the members and for punishing the deviant members. They rules are enforced by party whips that ensures that members act in accordance with the party’s interest. In legislative party meetings, all the members may meet or some members meet in form of committees. These are formed for ironing the party differences that may arise and making legislations Within the party legislature, there are party committees which are formed to deal with a particular subject matter or may be a small part of the big system whose work is to formulate policies and decisions which are validated by votes of the members in the plenary.            There are also party factions. These are groupings that form themselves within a larger party. They are organized on the basis of shared interest. They may be formal or informal. They may also be formed due to ethnic backgrounds common ideologies region religion gender and common interest.            Political parties have also what is called shadow government. It is formed by leaders of the oppositional government who are appointed by their respective parties to act as checks and balances of the ruling government. Their work is to blow the whistle wherever the government is pursuing something that is not certain its legal framework. These are found in parliamentary system of government.            Political parties (Satori G., 1982) act as mediators or as the bridge between the citizens and the government. In competitive democratic parties, the ruling government is pressurized to take the needs of its people in to consideration. In recruiting party supporters, political parties employ different strategies for example the parties develop among those who feel that they have been sidelined by the ruling government. It is easier for these people to form a political party because they have a â€Å"we feeling†and thus they can be easily made to form an organization. These external mobilizations are what have led to social democratic movements like fascist groups as in Germany, Europe. Most of these are formed by people who feel they are not satisfied with the ruling system of the government so these factions try to embrace the proper strategies that would incorporate the heeds of all citizens.            Political parties in a nutshell play various roles for example; they help citizens in preserving and protecting their rights and freedom. People who are democratic exercise their political rights and freedom. People who are democratic exercise their political rights of shaping their government and they do this through their political parties.            Political organizations act as links between the people and their representatives. It is through the political parties that people elect their representatives. Parties enlighten people on what it entails to be a good leader than they chose them wisely to represent them in public offices.            It is the prerogative of the party that gathers the majority votes to legislate laws which government citizens. It is people who give these parties the powers to legislate laws on their behalf and it is them who can remove them from their offices if they fail to perform to the expectations of the citizens. The opposition government which is formed by the second majority is free to oppose on the government plans policies and ideals which they feel are not right and offer their own proposals to the government (Stewart D., 1978)            It is also through political parties that elected party representatives can be held responsible for their actions. People who do not perform enough or the party which do not perform well to people’s expectations is voted out by the same members who had voted it in. It is only through democratic party system that principles of democracy are recognized even when the competing parties fail to form the government. They accept that it is the people’s will that they did not win. They also accept that government has been chosen by the majority. But if there is no political parties and the government is seized by a group of people then people would feel conned and misrepresented.            Political parties allow people to represent their diversity. Most of them are formed around a set of political beliefs others are formed on economic interests. While others on shared experiences and history. Others are formed through alliances of different people who come together to win elections. Whether small or big political parties share values of compromise and tolerance, they know that it is only through cooperating with various parties and organizations that they can provide leadership and visions that can win the hearts of citizens and support (Bergland S.and Jan A, 1995)            People under political parties realize that people hold different political views. These democratic parties can come together to debate and reach to a consensus thereby solving clash of ideas and values and promoting free and public debate. However their differences may be that these people share democratic values of freedom of speech, faith and protection for all by the law. Parties that do not manage to form the government (Oslon D.M., 1994) take the role of the opposition and continue to enjoy their rights of organizing and speaking out their views knowing that later they will have a chance to form the next government.            It should be known that the struggle for democracy between political parties is not a fight for whom to rule but a competition to serve people. The party systems have been in existence since 18th century. It where there are organized political groupings each of which presents its manifesto to the electorate for approval. The party with the best policies is voted in by the people. Most people who find their way to parliaments, they are sponsored by their parties. It does not matter how many political parties a country has, ,what matters is whether democratic principles are pursued for example Britain has had only two party system since 1945.            Today parties often seem to struggle to impose unique and workable policies when in government. This is for the simple reasons that they cannot make a difference to the policy outcomes when they compare themselves with the former government. , the failure of the governments to identify the common persistent problems, make people to lose confidence in the government. There is another factor that makes government to be unable to cater for its people. These are things like economic globalization which incapacitates the government to meet the needs of the locals. Despite all these short comings, the roles that political parties play cannot be downplayed. They are vehicles to democracy thus the role they play in politics cannot be Reference: Bergland, S. and Jan A., 1995: The Evolution of Party System in Eastern Europe: Journal of Communist Studies. Oslon, D. M., 1994, Democratic legislature instructions:E. Sharpe Inc. New York and London. Satori G.,1982. Parties and Party Systems: A Framework for Analysis. New York and Cambridge University. Stewart D., 1997: The Evolving Leadership Electorate; Canadian journal of political science. Aldrich J A., 1995. Why Parties? The Origin and Transformation of Political Parties in America: University of Chicago Press.
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