Chapter 4 — Political Parties

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

Political parties perform seven key functions: (1) contest elections, (2) put forward different policies for voters to choose from, (3) play a decisive role in making laws through the legislature, (4) form and run governments, (5) provide opposition by voicing different views and criticising government failures, (6) shape public opinion by raising and highlighting issues, and (7) provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes.

Political parties are necessary because in a large society without them, every election candidate would be independent with no promises about major policy changes. The government would remain uncertain and unaccountable. Parties are a necessary condition for democracy—they gather different views, present them to government, bring representatives together so responsible government can be formed, and provide a mechanism to support or restrain government, make policies, and justify or oppose them.

There are three main party systems: (1) One-party systems where only one party is allowed to control government (e.g., Communist Party in China)—this is undemocratic; (2) Two-party systems where two main parties compete for power (e.g., USA, UK), though other parties may exist; (3) Multi-party systems where several parties have reasonable chances of coming to power either alone or in alliance (e.g., India).

National parties are country-wide parties present in various states following the same policies and strategies decided at national level. A party that secures at least 6% of total votes in Lok Sabha elections or state assembly elections in four states and wins at least 4 seats in Lok Sabha is recognised as a national party. State (regional) parties operate mainly within one state, and a party securing 6% votes in state assembly elections and winning 2 seats is recognised as a state party.

According to the Election Commission of India notification of 2023, India has six recognised national parties: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and National People's Party (NPP).

The first challenge is lack of internal democracy within parties. There is a tendency in political parties towards concentration of power in one or few leaders at the top. Parties do not keep membership registers, do not hold organisational meetings, and do not conduct internal elections regularly. Ordinary members do not get sufficient information or means to influence party decisions, leading leaders to assume greater power and those who disagree finding it difficult to continue in the party.

Dynastic succession is the second challenge where top positions in parties are always controlled by members of one family. Since most political parties do not practice open and transparent procedures, there are very few ways for ordinary workers to rise to the top. This unfairly favours people close to leaders or even family members, which is bad for democracy since people without adequate experience or popular support come to occupy positions of power.

The third challenge is the growing role of money and muscle power in parties, especially during elections. Parties focus on winning elections and tend to nominate candidates who have or can raise lots of money. Rich people and companies who give funds tend to have influence on party policies and decisions. In some cases, parties even support criminals who can win elections. This is a concern for democracies worldwide about the increasing role of rich people and big companies in democratic politics.

The fourth challenge is that parties often do not offer meaningful choice to voters because they lack significant ideological differences. In recent years, there has been a decline in ideological differences among major parties. For example, the Labour and Conservative parties in Britain differ only in details on how policies are framed and implemented. In India too, differences among major parties on economic policies have reduced, leaving those who want really different policies with no option available.

Several reforms have been made or suggested: (1) Constitution was amended to prevent elected representatives from changing parties (defection); (2) Candidates must file affidavits with property and criminal case details; (3) Election Commission mandated parties hold organisational elections and file income tax returns; (4) Suggested reforms include making it mandatory for parties to maintain membership registers, follow their own constitution, hold open elections to highest posts, give minimum one-third tickets to women candidates, and introduce state funding of elections where government provides money to support election expenses.

Yes, NCERT textbooks are free. You can download NCERT books without any sign-up required on CBSE PrepMaster. All NCERT content is freely available to support students' learning.