--------------------Aditya Mongra @ Professors Classes--------------------

Political party

The political party is the major organizing principle of modern politics.

A political party, in a broader sense, is a group of people that is organised for the
purpose of winning government power, by electoral or other means.

Joseph A. Schumpeter defines party as a group whose members propose

to act in concert in the competitive struggle for political power.

Emergence of political parties is an aspect of political modernization. In

modern politics, the relationship of an individual with the state has been redefined
from that of a subject to a citizen. Democratic theory considers citizens as rational,
independent and interested political persons capable of expressing their opinion
regarding the persons aspiring for holding offices and also competent in electing
some person who deals with the policies of the government in a way conducive to
the interest of the masses.

Political sociology is primarily concerned with the study of political parties

as social institutions and their transformative character in the ever dynamic social
system. It also attempts to understand the relations between party members, party
leaders and the masses.

Let us now briefly discuss the views of some important social and political
scholars.

Marx and Engels, in the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848)

furnished the proletariat with the programme which would take humanity to a
classless society, i.e. a communist society. This is the programme and path that all
must necessarily cross under the leadership of the proletariat materialized in its
party. Marx and Engels realized their thesis on the necessity of building the
working class party as an indispensable instrument to fight for its class interests.
As they wrote, In its struggle against united power of the owing classes, the
proletariat cannot act as a class unless it constitutes itself into a political party,
distinct and opposed to all the old political parties created by the owning classes,
and that This constitution of the proletariat into a political party is indispensable to
ensure the triumph of the social resolution and its ultimate goal: the abolition of the
classes.

1
 --------------------Aditya Mongra @ Professors Classes--------------------

Lenin reasserted the necessity of party to transform society. His great point
was Give us an organization of revolutionaries and well shake Russia to its
foundations. He reasoned that a party was necessary to change the world. And its
programme consists of the organization of the proletariats class struggle and the
leadership of this struggle whose final objective is the conquest of political power
for the proletariat and the organization of socialist society. Lenin was much
concerned with the principle of party organization. He advocated the construction
of a tightly knit revolutionary party, organised on the basis of democratic
centralism, to serve as the vanguard of the working class. He argued that
without democracy it was impossible for party members to express their opinions,
and without centralism, it was impossible to achieve unity of action and to carry
out party decisions.

Max Weber defines parties as groups which are specifically concerned

with influencing policies and making decisions in the interests of their
membership. In Webers words, parties are concerned with the acquisition of social
power. Weber further argues that at times parties may represent class interests or
status interests. In most cases, they are partly class parties and partly status parties.
Webers view of parties suggests that the relationship between political groups and
class and status groups is far from clear cut. For instance, sometimes parties may
cut-across both, class as well as status groups.

Max Weber said, parties live in a house of power and are always
structures struggling for domination. However, political parties are not the only
political groups that operate within the house of power. In most democratic
countries there are many private and voluntary associations which influence
political process. These include human rights groups, womens organizations,
labour unions, environmental groups, chambers of commerce, manufacturers
associations, senior citizens associations and any other organized interest group in
society. These are known as para-political groups.

2
 --------------------Aditya Mongra @ Professors Classes--------------------

In a nutshell, there are two divergent views with regard to the role of
political parties in the political process viz. (i) Liberal view and (ii) Marxist view.

The liberal view is that political parties along with pressure groups and
others interest groups, engage in competition for power as the representatives of
different socio-economic groups in society. As a result of open competition, power
in pluralist political systems is non-cumulative and shared. However, this view of
the role of political parties in liberal democracies has been criticized severely. It
has been argued that certain groups dominate the political decision-making
process, especially those who dominate in the political realm. The view was most
famously articulated by Robert Michels in the form of the iron law of
oligarchy.

While liberals emphasize the important role of political parties in

representative democracies, neo-Marxists (like Adorno, Horkheimer, Marcuse,
etc.) play down their significance. In their view, in capitalist societies, since the
dominant economic class is also the ruling class, parliamentary politics is illusory,
and simply an ideological strategy which diverts attention away from the real
sources of socio-economic and political inequalities. Many have argued that both
liberal and the Marxist views are unsophisticated. It is true that power may be
concentrated, but it is also possible for the ordinary people to influence political
outcomes as we have seen in Delhi Assembly elections held in 2013 and also in
2015, in which Aam Aadmi Party, which raised common mans issues, delivered
a spectacular electoral performance.

Functions of political parties

Political parties are a vital link between the state and civil society. In other
words, political parties link the state to political forces in society, giving organized
expression to interests and making them effective politically.

A political party performs a wide range of functions. According to

Gabriel Almond, some of the important functions of political parties are as
follows:

1. Articulation of interests: As stated earlier, political parties perform the

vital role of articulation of interests of different sections of society. Thereby
give organized expression to interests and make them effective politically.

3
 --------------------Aditya Mongra @ Professors Classes--------------------

2. Aggregation of interests: One of the most important functions of political

party is interest aggregation. A political party is a multi-interest group that
represents diverse interests of the society. It tries to harmonise these interests
with each other and thereby seeks to produce consensus among as many
groups as possible. Political party thus acts as a very effective mediator in
settling disagreements in society in a peaceful and institutionalized manner.

3. Political communication: Political party provides a link between rulers and

ruled. In ensures a two-way communication process between the
government and people. It is a channel of expression, upward and
downward. It is mainly through the parties that the government is constantly
kept informed about the general demands of the society. The upward flow of
communication from the ruled to the rulers is relatively strong in
competitive party systems, whereas in a single ruling party, the flow of
communication is mainly downward.

4. Direction to government and society: Political parties give direction to

government and society. When in government, party leaders are centrally
involved in implementing collective goals for society. The radical
transformations of Russian and Chinese society were brought about by
vanguard communist parties. In Asia and Africa, nationalist parties played a
crucial role in winning independence. In Western Europe, political parties
contributed to the creation of welfare states.

5. Political recruitment and socialization: Further, political parties also work

as agents of elite recruitment and socialization. In a democracy, political
elite are recruited mainly through political parties. Leaders of governments
are normally the leaders of political parties. The political party also plays an
important role in the political socialization of the masses. The political
socialization performed by political parties may however assume two
distinct forms. The party many either reinforce the existing political culture
or it may try to alter the established political cultural pattern by generating
new attitudes and beliefs. However, sometimes, this process of political
socialization may also result in the dysfunctional consequences. Thus, when
parties represent strong traditional and ethnic subcultures and seek to
reinforce the same, they in effect, tend to produce divisive forces, which
may seriously affect the stability of the political system. Such tendencies can

4
 --------------------Aditya Mongra @ Professors Classes--------------------

be witnessed in the contemporary India with the growth of numerous

regional and religious parties, and coalition governments.

Please also refer the handouts:

Handout 1: The changing nature of the party system in India

Handout 2: The nature of coalition politics in India