Political Parties.............Part I

SUMMARY OF THE TOPICS  ON WHICH QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ARE GIVEN: 

Why do we need political parties?

How many parties should we have?

National political parties

State parties

Challenges to political parties

How can parties be reformed?

I. Answer the following questions : 

Q1. What is a Political Party?

1. A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. 
2. They agree on some policies and programmes for the society with a view to promote the collective good.

Q2. What are the components of a political party? 

A political party has three components:

1. The leaders
2. The active members
3. The followers

Q3. List the functions of a political party.

Parties contest elections. 

1. In most democracies,political parties contest  elections among the candidates put up by political parties. 
2. Parties select their candidates in different ways. In India top party leaders choose candidates for contesting elections.
   

Parties put forward different policies and programmes: 

1. Parties put forward differentpolicies and programmes and the voters choose from them.

Making laws:

1. Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country.The laws are debated and passed in the legislature.

They run governments:

1. Parties form and run governments.
2. The big policy decisions are taken by political executive that comes from the political parties.
3. Parties recruit leaders, trains them and then make them ministers to run the government in the way they want.

Play the role of opposition:

1. The parties that lose in the elections play the role of opposition to the parties in power, by voicing different views and criticising government for its failures or wrong policies. 
2. Opposition parties also mobilise opposition to the government.

Parties shape public opinion:

1. They raise and highlight issues.and shape public opinionon the relevant issues for the proper functioning of the government.
2. Parties sometimes also launch movements for the resolution of problems faced by people.

Parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes:

1. Parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes implemented by governments.
2. As for an ordinary citizen it is easy to approach a local party leader than a government officer.

Q4. What is the necessity of a political party in a democracy? Explain.

1. Political parties are necessary as they perform various functions in smooth functioning of a democracy.
2. They unite like minded people from diverse backgrounds and religions etc to form coalition of people.
3. They provide link between the government and the citizens.
4. We can understand the necessity of political parties by imagining a situation without parties.
5. They bring various representatives together so that a responsible government could be formed.