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.

Fill the blanks with the correct words provided in the box.

a. absolute             b. appoint        c. election        d. coalition      e. committee

f. conservative       g. debate         h. democracy   i. ideology      j. left-wing

k. revolution          l. solidarity

1. Indonesia is one of the …………….. country in Asia.

2. To achieve the goal, some small parties form a ………….
3. After a long …………. Paul was chosen captain in the football team
4. In politics, we prefer evolution to ………………..
5. We must …….. the members of the committee
6. An ………… leader need not ask anyone for permission to do anything
7. Old people are usually more ….. than young people
8. The result of the …………. Shows that Mr. Hasan was supported by all of the
participants
9. The ………… has to make the decision as soon as possible
10. In our country there is not ……… party