POLITICAL PARTIES

What is Political Parties

 Apolitical party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a
particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold
similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote
specific ideological or policygoals.
 Political parties have become a major part of the politics of almost every country,
as modern party organizations developed and spread around the world over the
last few centuries. It is extremely rare for a country to have no political parties.
Some countries have only one political party while others have several. Parties
are important in the politics of autocracies as well as democracies, though usually
democracies have more political parties than autocracies. Autocracies often have
a single party that governs the country, and some political scientists consider
competition between two or more parties to be an essential part of democracy.
 OVERVIEW
 Political parties are essential institutions of democracy. By competing in
elections parties offer citizens a choice in governance, and while in opposition
they can hold governments accountable. When citizens join political parties,
volunteer their time, donate money and vote for their leaders, they are exercising
their basic democratic rights. Participation of citizens in political parties offers
unique benefits, including opportunities to influence policy choices, choose and
engage political leaders, and run for office. However, in some countries political
parties do not respect the rights of citizens to participate and are not accountable
to voters. NDI supports the development of vibrant, accountable and inclusive
multiparty systems that offer citizens meaningful choices and opportunities for
political participation.
 Causes of political parties
 Political parties are a nearly ubiquitous feature of modern countries.Nearly all
democratic countries have strong political parties, and many political scientists
consider countries with fewer than two parties to necessarily
be autocratic However, these sources allow that a country with multiple
competitive parties is not necessarily democratic, and the politics of many
autocratic countries are organized around one dominant political party. The
ubiquity and strength of political parties in nearly every modern country has led
researchers to remark that the existence of political parties is almost a law of
politics, and to ask why parties appear to be such an essential part of modern
states. Political scientists have therefore come up with several explanations for
why political parties are a nearly universal political phenomenon.
 Party membership
 Citizens in a democracy will often affiliate with a specific political party. Party
membership may include paying dues, an agreement not to affiliate with multiple
parties at the same time, and sometimes a statement of agreement with the party's
policies and platform. In democratic countries, members of political parties often
are allowed to participate in elections to choose the party leadership. Party
members may form the base of the volunteer activists and donors who support
political parties during campaigns. The extent of participation in party
organizations can be affected by a country's political institutions, with
certain electoralsystem and party systemsencouragin higher party
membership. Since at least the 1980s, membership in large traditional party
organizations has been steadily declining across a number of countries,
particularly longstanding European democracies