POLITICAL PARTIES

A political party is a social organization whose main aim is to win political power. Political parties have
expressed goals, which forms their ideology and which guides them in policy making. These goals or
ideologies can be changed to suit the wishes of the voters.

FUNCTIONS OF POLITICAL PARTIES

1. Political parties simplify the process of selecting a government. They present people who are ready to
run for various offices and assume power if they win and form a government.

2. Political parties promote group interests, by examining the various interests that exist within the
state and promoting the most important ones. They bring the interests of various groups together and
try to promote such by making them their party manifestoes.

3. Political parties serve as a link between government and the people. Members of the ruling party are
able to influence the government through their membership of the ruling party and they also help to
propagate the views of the government because they see the government as their own and exist to care
of their needs.

4. Political parties try to mobilize people to make them politically active. They do this by educating the
people on the activities and plan of action of the government. They also organize the electorate to get
their votes and support.

5. Political parties help to determine the national objectives of a state by presenting different
programmes and policies to the public. The public thus have a set of goals or political ideas to choose
from. This helps to give a sense of direction.

6. Political parties integrate the society. This is because they cut across ethnic, social, religious and other
divisions which weaken national unity. PDP for instance has brought people of diverse ethnic groups,
religion together and given them a sense of oneness.

7. Political parties help ensure stability of government, by helping to consolidate the government in
power if it is their own. For example PDP will do everything in its power to ensure that the government
of President Jonathan Goodluck does not crash. The party will also ensure that people oriented
programmes are put in place and implemented, so that the party will continue to be popular and remain
in power.

8. Political parties ensure that the business of government runs well. They do this by ensuring that they
settle quarrels between the executives and that party policies are implemented.

9. Political parties make change of government easy. They do this by presenting alternative governments
that can take over from the incumbent government if they have not performed satisfactorily. Thus if
elections are free and fair, it becomes very easy to change the government.

DISADVANTAGES OF POLITICAL PARTIES

As useful as political parties are, they also have some disadvantages as the founding fathers of America
have argued.

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1. Political parties can turn the nation into opposing camps. This is the view held by Julius Nyerere of
Tanzania. In other words, political parties work against national unity as they consistently try to discredit
each other in other to win votes. For instance during the First and Second Republics in Nigeria, political
parties hardly ever agreed with one another on any issue and their supporters were constantly hostile to
one another.

2. Political parties can become dictatorial. Members of parties no matter their position in government
cannot stand up against their party because of the policies of their parties even if such policies are
unjust and unprogressive. This is because the party controls the process of election and government.
Any member who does such will be disciplined and suspended or even expelled. He /she will thus lose
the opportunity to run for office again, on the platform of that party.

3. Political parties can exploit ethnic and religious differences. Nigeria was polarized along ethnic
political lines during the First Republic. The NPC was largely supported by the Northerners; The NCNC
was mainly supported by the Easterners, while the AG had supporters only from the West. Thus
ethnicity was the name of the game and not national unity.

4. Political parties can be undemocratic. Most parties are usually controlled by a small group of
powerful men, who take advantage of their control of the party to impose their choices as candidates
and put forward policies which favour their personal interests.

5. Political parties can promote corruption. This is due to the fact that they have to recover the monies
spent in campaigns. These monies are usually donated by their rich members who will want their money
back. To pay back therefore, the parties when they win power will award highly inflated contracts to the
wealthy patrons who made funds available for campaigns to enable them recover their monies.

6. Political parties can discourage decent people from being politically active. This is because of the
perception that politics is a dirty game that involves a lot of lies, thuggery and violence.

7. Political parties can be used to promote violence. Politicians recruit thugs to scare their opponents
away. The proliferation of thugs, will naturally lead to violence as the thugs clash. This leads to loss of
lives and properties and frustration of free and fair elections.

ORGANISATION OF PARTIES

Party organizations refers to the following

1. How the leaders are selected

2. The link between leaders and their followers

3. How decisions are made and the party financed

4. The basis and extent of membership. Maurice Duverger, a French political scientist has delineated
four types of political parties and they are as follows

1. The branch party

2. The caucus party

3. The cell party

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4. The militia party

THE BRANCH PARTY

Also called the mass party, this type of party recruits its members extensively and establishes offices in
many towns and villages. The ruling body of the branch party is usually called the “national conference”
and is composed of representatives from all the towns and village branches. The national conference
makes the policies for the party and selects its national leaders. The party finances itself through the
contributions of members.

THE CAUCUS PARTY

Also called the elite party or patron party, this party relies on important local people for support rather
than mass recruitment. The leadership is made up of important and distinguished people. Leadership is
based on individual merit and not popular support. The party leadership lays down the party policy and
finance the party from their contributions.

THE CELL PARTY

this type of party recruits its members in large numbers. It makes the work place rather than a
geographical territory its unit of organization. This is rather like a labour union where you always have
branches in work places, rather than in wards or local governments or even states. Leadership is
selected like that of the mass party, but leadership is more centralized. The communist party is an
example of a cell party. The party is financed from the contributions of members.

THE MILITIA PARTY

This type of party is organized like a military unit. There is a chain of authority, which concentrates
power at the highest levels and discipline here is as important as in the military. Hitler’s Storm Troopers
in Germany and Mussolini’s Black Shirt in Italy are good examples of the military party.