Overview
Political parties are the most visible and the least loved institutions of democracy, and this chapter takes both facts seriously. It defines a party as a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in government, agreeing on some policies and programmes for the society with a view to promoting the collective good. A party has three components - the leaders, the active members and the followers - and it performs six functions that no other body performs: contesting elections, putting forward policies and programmes so that voters have a manageable choice, making laws, forming and running governments, acting as the opposition when defeated, shaping public opinion, and giving people access to government machinery and welfare schemes. The chapter then argues that parties are not an optional extra but a necessity: without them every candidate would be independent, no one could promise any policy change to the people, and no one would be responsible for how the country is run. It surveys the one-party, two-party and multi-party systems, explains why India's social and geographical diversity made a multi-party system unavoidable, and sets out how the Election Commission recognises national and state parties. The last third of the chapter is a candid account of what is wrong: the lack of internal democracy, dynastic succession, the growing role of money and muscle power, and the absence of a meaningful choice between parties. It closes with the reforms that have been attempted - the anti-defection law, the affidavit on assets and criminal cases, and Election Commission orders on organisational elections and income tax returns - and with three suggestions for further reform, together with a warning that laws alone cannot do the work.
Learning Objectives
- Define a political party and identify its three components.
- List and explain the functions performed by political parties in a democracy.
- Explain why political parties are necessary and what a democracy without parties would look like.
- Distinguish between one-party, two-party and multi-party systems, with examples of each.
- Explain why a multi-party system developed in India and evaluate its advantages and disadvantages.
- State the criteria by which the Election Commission recognises national and state parties.
- Explain the challenge of lack of internal democracy within parties.
- Explain dynastic succession and why it is a problem for democracy.
- Explain how money and muscle power influence parties and elections.
- Explain what is meant by the absence of a meaningful choice for voters.
- Describe the reforms that have been made and suggest further ways to reform political parties.
Topics in this chapter
10 topics · tap a topic title to jump straight to it.
What is a Political Party?
The definition
A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. They agree on some policies and programmes for the society with a view to promote the collective good. Since there can be different views on what is good for all, parties try to persuade people why their policies are better than others.
Three components
A political party has three components:
- the leaders,
- the active members, and
- the followers.
What identifies a party
Parties are about a part of the society and thus involve partisanship. Thus a party is known by which part it stands for, which policies it supports and whose interests it upholds. A political party is identified by its policies and underlying philosophy about how a society should be organised.
The word partisan is used to describe a person who is strongly committed to a party, group or faction. Partisanship is marked by a tendency to take a side and an inability to take a balanced view on an issue. This is the reason parties are seen as the most visible cause of political divisions in society — and that is exactly why the chapter has to argue for them rather than assume them.
- A party seeks to promote the collective good, but since people disagree about what is good for all, it must persuade.
- Leaders, active members and followers - the three components of any party.
- Partisanship means taking a side and finding it hard to take a balanced view; parties are unavoidably partisan.
The Functions of Political Parties
Six functions
Political parties fill political offices and exercise political power. Parties do so by performing a series of functions.
- Parties contest elections. In most democracies elections are fought mainly among the candidates put up by political parties. In India, top party leaders choose candidates for contesting elections.
- Parties put forward different policies and programmes and the voters choose from them. A government is expected to base its policies on the line taken by the ruling party. A party reduces a vast multitude of opinions into a few basic positions which it supports, so that people can choose from a manageable set of options.
- Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country. Formally, laws are debated and passed in the legislature, but since most members belong to a party, they go by the direction of the party leadership.
- Parties form and run governments. Parties recruit leaders, train them and then make them ministers to run the government in the way they want.
- Those parties that lose elections play the role of opposition to the parties in power, by voicing different views and criticising government for its failures or wrong policies. They also mobilise opposition to the government.
- Parties shape public opinion. They raise and highlight issues. Parties have lakhs of members and activists spread all over the country. Many pressure groups are the extensions of political parties.
- Parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes. For an ordinary citizen it is easy to approach a local party leader than a government officer. That is why they feel close to parties even when they do not fully trust them.
- Function 2 is the one most often missed: parties compress countless opinions into a manageable set of choices.
- Losing an election is itself a role - the opposition voices different views, criticises and mobilises.
- Ordinary citizens find it easier to approach a local party leader than a government officer.
Why Do We Need Political Parties?
A thought experiment
Imagine a situation where there are no political parties. Every candidate in the elections will be independent. No one will be able to make any promises to the people about any major policy changes. The government may be formed, but its utility will remain ever uncertain. Elected representatives will be accountable to their constituency for what they do in the locality, but no one will be responsible for how the country will be run.
The historical argument
We can also think about it by looking at the non-party based elections to the panchayat in many states. Although the parties do not formally contest, it is generally noticed that the village gets split into more than one faction, each of which puts up a panel of its candidates. This is exactly what the party system does.
The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative democracies. As societies became large and complex, they also needed some agency to gather different views on various issues and to present these to the government. They needed some way to bring various representatives together so that a responsible government could be formed. They needed a mechanism to support or restrain the government, make policies, justify or oppose them.
Political parties fulfil these needs that every representative government has. We can say that parties are a necessary condition for a democracy.
- Without parties, no one could promise a policy change and no one would be responsible for how the country is run.
- Even in formally non-party panchayat elections, villages split into factions that each field a panel - the party function reappearing under another name.
- Parties arose with representative democracy because large, complex societies needed a way to aggregate views and form responsible governments.
Party Systems: One, Two and Multi-Party
How many parties should there be?
The number of parties is not a matter of choice; it depends on the nature of society, its social and regional divisions, its history of politics and its system of elections.
One-party system
In some countries only one party is allowed to control and run the government. In China, only the Communist Party is allowed to rule. This is not a good option, because it is not a democratic option: any democratic system must allow at least two parties to compete in elections and provide a fair chance for the competing parties to come to power.
Two-party system
In some countries power usually changes between two main parties. Several other parties may exist, contest elections and win a few seats, but only the two main parties have a serious chance of winning majority of seats to form government. The United States of America and the United Kingdom are examples.
Multi-party system
If several parties compete for power, and more than two parties have a reasonable chance of coming to power either on their own strength or in alliance with others, we call it a multiparty system. Thus in India we have a multiparty system.
In this system the government is formed by various parties coming together in a coalition. When several parties in a multi-party system join hands for the purpose of contesting elections and winning power, it is called an alliance or a front.
Assessing the multi-party system
The multiparty system often appears messy and leads to political instability. At the same time, this system allows for a variety of interests and opinions to enjoy political representation. India evolved a multiparty system because the social and geographical diversity in such a large country is not easily absorbed by two or even three parties. No system is ideal for all countries and all situations.
- China: only the Communist Party may rule - not a democratic option.
- USA and UK: two-party systems, where other parties exist but only two can realistically form a government.
- India's multi-party system was not chosen; it follows from a social and geographical diversity that two or three parties could not absorb.
National and State Parties in India
Registration and recognition
Every party in the country has to register with the Election Commission. While the Commission treats all parties equally, it offers some special facilities to large and established parties. These parties are given a unique symbol — only the official candidates of that party can use that election symbol. Parties that get this privilege and some other special facilities are recognised by the Election Commission for the purpose. That is why these parties are called recognised political parties.
State party
A party that secures at least six per cent of the total votes in an election to the Legislative Assembly of a State and wins at least two seats is recognised as a State party.
National party
A party that secures at least six per cent of the total votes in Lok Sabha elections or Assembly elections in four States and wins at least four seats in the Lok Sabha is recognised as a national party.
What follows from the pattern
Other than the national parties, most of the major parties of the country are classified by the Election Commission as State parties. These are commonly referred to as regional parties, though these parties need not always be regional in their ideology or outlook. Some of these parties are all India parties that happen to have succeeded only in some states. Parties like the Samajwadi Party, Samata Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal have national level political organisation with units in several states.
Over the last three decades, the number and strength of these parties has expanded. This made the Parliament of India politically more and more diverse. No one national party is able to secure on its own a majority in Lok Sabha. As a result, the national parties are compelled to form alliances with State parties. Since 1996, nearly every one of the state parties has got an opportunity to be a part of one or the other national level coalition government. This has contributed to the strengthening of federalism and democracy in our country.
- State party: at least 6% of votes in a State Assembly election plus at least two seats.
- National party: at least 6% of votes in four States plus at least four Lok Sabha seats.
- The rise of state parties forced national parties into alliances, which strengthened federalism - the same point made in the Federalism chapter.
Challenge 1: Lack of Internal Democracy
Concentration of power
The first challenge is the lack of internal democracy within parties. All over the world there is a tendency in political parties towards the concentration of power in one or few leaders at the top.
What is missing
- Parties do not keep membership registers, do not hold organisational meetings, and do not conduct internal elections regularly.
- Ordinary members of the party do not get sufficient information on what happens inside the party. They do not have the means or the connections needed to influence the decisions.
- As a result the leaders assume greater power to make decisions in the name of the party.
The consequence for members
Since one or few leaders exercise paramount power in the party, those who disagree with the leadership find it difficult to continue in the party. More than an ideology, it is personal loyalty to the leader that becomes more important.
Notice how this challenge undermines the second function of parties listed earlier. If a party's programme is decided by two or three people rather than argued out among its members, then the "choice" offered to voters is not the considered position of a large body of citizens; it is the preference of a handful.
- No membership registers, no organisational meetings, no regular internal elections - the three practical symptoms.
- Those who disagree with the leadership find it difficult to remain in the party.
- Personal loyalty to the leader displaces ideology as the basis of a political career.
Challenge 2: Dynastic Succession
How it follows from the first challenge
The second challenge of dynastic succession is related to the first one. Since most political parties do not practise open and transparent procedures for their functioning, there are very few ways for an ordinary worker to rise to the top in a party.
What happens instead
Those who happen to be the leaders are in a position of unfair advantage to favour people close to them or even their own family members. In many parties the top positions are always controlled by members of one family. This is unfair to other members of that party. This is also bad for democracy, since people who do not have adequate experience or popular support come to occupy positions of power.
Not only an Indian problem
This tendency is present in some measure all over the world, including in some of the older democracies. It is worth saying this plainly, because it prevents the challenge from being dismissed as a peculiarly Indian failing; it is a general consequence of parties that lack internal democracy, and it can be cured only by curing that.
- Dynastic succession follows directly from the lack of open, transparent internal procedures.
- It is unfair to other party members and bad for democracy, because inexperienced people occupy positions of power.
- The tendency exists in older democracies too, not only in India.
Challenge 3: Money and Muscle Power
The pressure of elections
The third challenge is about the growing role of money and muscle power in parties, especially during elections. Since parties are focused only on winning elections, they tend to use short-cuts to win elections.
Two consequences
- They tend to nominate those candidates who have or can raise lots of money. Rich people and companies who give funds to the parties tend to have influence on the policies and decisions of the party.
- In some cases parties support criminals who can win elections. Democrats all over the world are worried about the increasing role of rich people and big companies in democratic politics.
Why this matters most
This is the challenge that most directly attacks the idea of political equality. One-person-one-vote is worthless as a guarantee if the candidates on the ballot have all been selected by their capacity to raise money, or by their capacity to intimidate voters. The vote is then free but the choice has already been narrowed before the voter reaches it.
- Candidate selection increasingly turns on who can raise money rather than who has support.
- Funders - rich individuals and companies - gain influence over party policies and decisions.
- In some cases parties nominate criminals simply because they can win.
Challenge 4: No Meaningful Choice
The convergence problem
The fourth challenge is that very often parties do not seem to offer a meaningful choice to the voters. In order to offer meaningful choice, parties must be significantly different.
In recent years there has been a decline in the ideological differences among parties in most parts of the world. For example, the difference between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party in Britain has become very little. They agree on more fundamental aspects but differ only in details on how policies are to be framed and implemented.
In India
In our country too, the differences among all the major parties on the economic policies have reduced. Those who want really different policies have no option available to them.
And the choice of leaders
Sometimes people cannot even elect very different leaders either, because the same set of leaders keeps shifting from one party to another. This is a direct consequence of the first three challenges: where loyalty is personal rather than ideological, and where nomination depends on funds, a leader can change parties without changing anything that matters to them.
- Labour and Conservative in Britain now agree on fundamentals and differ only on detail.
- In India the differences among major parties on economic policy have narrowed sharply.
- The same set of leaders shifting between parties removes even the choice of different personnel.
How Can Parties Be Reformed?
Reforms already attempted
- The Constitution was amended to prevent elected MLAs and MPs from changing parties. This anti-defection law says that if any MLA or MP changes parties, he or she will lose the seat in the legislature. This new law has helped bring defection down. At the same time this has made dissent even more difficult: MPs and MLAs have to accept whatever the party leaders decide.
- The Supreme Court passed an order to reduce the influence of money and criminals. Now it is mandatory for every candidate who contests elections to file an affidavit giving details of his property and criminal cases pending against him. But there is no system to check if the information given by the candidates is true.
- The Election Commission passed an order making it necessary for political parties to hold their organisational elections and file their income tax returns. The parties have started doing so but sometimes it is mere formality.
Suggestions for further reform
- A law should regulate the internal affairs of political parties: maintain a register of members, follow its own constitution, have an independent authority to act as a judge in case of party disputes, and hold open elections to the highest posts.
- It should be made mandatory for political parties to give a minimum number of tickets, about one-third, to women candidates. Similarly there should be a quota for women in the decision making bodies of the party.
- There should be state funding of elections. The government should give parties money to support their election expenses — in kind, such as petrol, paper, telephone, or in cash on the basis of the votes secured in the last election.
Two cautions
The chapter ends with a warning about all such proposals. First, laws cannot do much by themselves and may create problems: too many regulations can be counter-productive and encourage parties to find ways of getting around the law. Second, reform depends on political practice — on pressure from ordinary citizens, through petitions, publicity and agitations, and on the good sense of political leaders and parties themselves.
- The anti-defection law cut defection but made internal dissent harder - a reform with a real cost.
- The affidavit on assets and criminal cases exists, but nothing verifies whether the declaration is true.
- State funding of elections may be in kind - petrol, paper, telephone - or in cash based on votes won last time.
Key Concepts
- Political party
- A group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government, agreeing on policies and programmes to promote the collective good.
- Partisan
- A person strongly committed to a party, group or faction, marked by a tendency to take a side and an inability to take a balanced view.
- Ruling party
- The political party that runs the government.
- Opposition
- The parties that lose an election but voice different views, criticise the government's failures, and mobilise opposition to it.
- One-party system
- A system in which only one party is allowed to control and run the government, as in China; not a democratic option.
- Two-party system
- A system in which power usually changes between two main parties, as in the USA and the UK.
- Multi-party system
- A system in which more than two parties have a reasonable chance of coming to power, alone or in alliance - the Indian case.
- Coalition government
- A government formed in a multi-party system by several parties coming together, because no party has a majority alone.
- Alliance or front
- Several parties in a multi-party system joining hands for the purpose of contesting elections and winning power.
- Recognised political party
- A party granted a unique election symbol and other special facilities by the Election Commission.
- State party
- A party securing at least 6 per cent of votes in a State Assembly election and winning at least two seats there.
- National party
- A party securing at least 6 per cent of votes in four States and winning at least four Lok Sabha seats.
- Regional party
- The common name for a State party, though such a party need not be regional in ideology and may be an all-India party successful in only some states.
- Internal democracy
- The practice within a party of keeping membership registers, holding meetings and conducting regular internal elections.
- Dynastic succession
- The control of a party's top positions by members of one family, arising where there is no open route for an ordinary worker to rise.
- Muscle power
- The use of intimidation, force or criminal influence to win elections.
- Defection
- Changing party allegiance from the party on which a person got elected to another party.
- Anti-defection law
- The constitutional amendment under which an MLA or MP who changes parties loses their seat; it reduced defection but made dissent harder.
- Affidavit
- A signed document submitted to an officer where a person makes a sworn statement regarding personal information - used by candidates to declare assets and criminal cases.
- State funding of elections
- A proposed reform under which government meets parties' election expenses in cash or in kind, based on votes won.
Practice Questions
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What is a political party? / राजनीतिक दल क्या है?
Show answer
A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government, agreeing on some policies and programmes for the society with a view to promoting the collective good. / राजनीतिक दल लोगों का वह समूह है जो चुनाव लड़ने और सरकार में सत्ता पाने के लिए एकत्र होता है, और समाज के सामूहिक हित को बढ़ावा देने के उद्देश्य से कुछ नीतियों और कार्यक्रमों पर सहमत होता है।
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State the three components of a political party. / राजनीतिक दल के तीन घटक बताइए।
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The three components are the leaders, the active members, and the followers or supporters of the party. / तीन घटक हैं—नेता, सक्रिय सदस्य, और दल के अनुयायी या समर्थक।
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Explain any four functions performed by political parties in a democracy. / लोकतंत्र में राजनीतिक दलों द्वारा निभाए जाने वाले किन्हीं चार कार्यों को समझाइए।
Show answer
Parties contest elections by putting up candidates, they put forward different policies and programmes, those that lose form the opposition and criticise the government, and they shape public opinion and provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes. / दल उम्मीदवार खड़े करके चुनाव लड़ते हैं, अलग-अलग नीतियाँ और कार्यक्रम प्रस्तुत करते हैं, हारने वाले विपक्ष बनाकर सरकार की आलोचना करते हैं, और जनमत बनाते हैं तथा लोगों को सरकारी तंत्र और कल्याणकारी योजनाओं तक पहुँच दिलाते हैं।
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Differentiate between a one-party, two-party and multi-party system with one example each. / एक-दलीय, द्वि-दलीय और बहु-दलीय प्रणाली में एक-एक उदाहरण सहित अंतर बताइए।
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In a one-party system only one party is allowed to control and run the government, as in China; in a two-party system power usually shifts between two main parties, as in the USA and the UK; in a multi-party system several parties compete and more than two have a serious chance of coming to power, as in India. / एक-दलीय प्रणाली में केवल एक दल को सरकार चलाने की अनुमति होती है, जैसे चीन; द्वि-दलीय प्रणाली में सत्ता प्रायः दो प्रमुख दलों के बीच बदलती है, जैसे अमेरिका और ब्रिटेन; बहु-दलीय प्रणाली में कई दल प्रतिस्पर्धा करते हैं और दो से अधिक के सत्ता में आने की वास्तविक संभावना होती है, जैसे भारत।
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What is the difference between a national party and a state party as recognised by the Election Commission? / चुनाव आयोग द्वारा मान्यता प्राप्त राष्ट्रीय दल और राज्य दल में क्या अंतर है?
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A registered party recognised as a national party must secure a minimum percentage of votes or seats in several states (e.g. at least 6% of votes in Lok Sabha or Assembly elections in four states plus four Lok Sabha seats), while a state party meets such a criterion within a single state. / एक पंजीकृत दल को राष्ट्रीय दल की मान्यता तब मिलती है जब वह कई राज्यों में न्यूनतम प्रतिशत वोट या सीटें प्राप्त करे (जैसे चार राज्यों में लोकसभा/विधानसभा चुनाव में कम-से-कम 6% वोट और चार लोकसभा सीटें), जबकि राज्य दल यह मानदंड किसी एक राज्य में पूरा करता है।
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Describe any four challenges faced by political parties in India. / भारत में राजनीतिक दलों के सामने आने वाली किन्हीं चार चुनौतियों का वर्णन कीजिए।
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The major challenges are lack of internal democracy with power concentrated in a few leaders, dynastic succession where party posts go to leaders' relatives, growing role of money and muscle power especially during elections, and the failure to offer meaningful choice as parties' policies often do not differ much. / प्रमुख चुनौतियाँ हैं—आंतरिक लोकतंत्र का अभाव जहाँ सत्ता कुछ नेताओं में केंद्रित होती है, वंशवादी उत्तराधिकार जहाँ पद नेताओं के रिश्तेदारों को मिलते हैं, चुनावों में धन और बाहुबल की बढ़ती भूमिका, और सार्थक विकल्प न दे पाना क्योंकि दलों की नीतियाँ प्रायः बहुत भिन्न नहीं होतीं।
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Suggest any three reforms that can strengthen and reform political parties. / राजनीतिक दलों को मजबूत और सुधारने हेतु किन्हीं तीन सुधारों का सुझाव दीजिए।
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A law can regulate parties' internal affairs and require regular organisational elections and maintenance of membership registers; it is mandatory for parties to reserve a proportion of tickets for women and to make their finances public; an Anti-Defection Law has been passed to stop elected members from changing parties. / कानून द्वारा दलों के आंतरिक मामलों को नियमित किया जा सकता है और नियमित संगठनात्मक चुनाव व सदस्यता सूची रखना अनिवार्य किया जा सकता है; दलों के लिए महिलाओं को टिकटों में एक अनुपात देना और अपने वित्त को सार्वजनिक करना अनिवार्य है; दल-बदल रोकने हेतु दल-बदल विरोधी कानून बनाया गया है।
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Why does the article say that no large democracy can function without political parties? / यह क्यों कहा जाता है कि कोई बड़ा लोकतंत्र राजनीतिक दलों के बिना काम नहीं कर सकता?
Show answer
Without parties every candidate would be independent and unable to promise any major policy change to the people, no one would be responsible for how the country is run, and in large countries parties are needed to gather and present different views, form and run governments, and provide a stable, accountable system. / दलों के बिना हर उम्मीदवार स्वतंत्र होगा और लोगों से किसी बड़े नीतिगत बदलाव का वादा नहीं कर पाएगा, देश कैसे चलेगा इसके लिए कोई जिम्मेदार नहीं होगा, और बड़े देशों में अलग-अलग विचारों को एकत्र व प्रस्तुत करने, सरकार बनाने और चलाने तथा एक स्थिर, जवाबदेह व्यवस्था देने के लिए दल आवश्यक हैं।
Related Laws & Principles
Explore allFoundational laws & principles behind this chapter. Each one opens a full page — what it says, why it matters, five practice questions and the mistakes to avoid.