Meeting 13 lecturer: Yurizal, M.

Pd

POLITICAL PARTIES

A Political Party is a group organized to support certain policies or questions of public

interest. The aim of political party is to elect officials who will try to carry out the party’s
policies. The questions may range from issues of peace, war and taxes to how people should earn
a living. A large political party usually has millions of members and supporters. When people in
a democracy disagree about what the government should do, each voter expresses his opinion by
voting for the candidate that supports his side of the agreement. Newspapers, radio and television
have a strong influence on political parties. The parties use radio and television to hold public
opinion.

Some countries have only one party, and others have many. In Cuba and China, there is
only one party: the Communist party. One party rule is also common in much of Africa and Latin
America. Under such a system people who do not agree with the party in power cannot express
their objections by voting for another party.

The countries where two or more parties have the right to compete with each other in
elections are the democracies. Democracies usually operate under either a two-party or a multi-
party system. Many European countries have multi-party system. Among there are Norway,
Sweden, Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands. Because of the number of
the competing parties, it is sometimes difficult for any one party to get a clear majority of the
votes. Indonesia operates under a multi-party system.