Political Parties

CIVICS CHAPTER 9 - POLITICAL PARTIES


1) What are political parties?

In a democracy it is important that the people participate either directly or indirectly. Direct democracy is only present in countries with a small population. Most of the countries follow indirect democracy.
In the area of development of any country, political parties play a major role. They are a link between the government and the common man. They convey the policies of the government to the masses, they form the government, they form the opposition and they critize the government for its wrong policies. A political party is an organized way of representing the public opinion. They have a lot of influence on colleges and universities, pressure groups and the common man. There are 3 kinds of party system namely a single party system, a bi party system and a multi party system.

 Single party system: A country may have many small political parties but if only one party is prominent and strong then that system is known as a single party system. Only one party comes to power again and again, it cannot be dislodged or openly critized. The result being it behaves like a dictatorship under the grab of democracy. For e.g., Hitler’s Nazi party and Mussolini’s Fascist party.

 Bi party system: England and USA are two examples of a bi party system. The 2 parties in England are labour party and the conservative party and the 2 parties in the USA are the democrats and the republicans. This is very healthy for democracy because when one party forms the government, the other party forms the opposition. The opposition keeps a check and balance on the policies of the ruling party. In England, the opposition is known as the shadow cabinet. It means that it acts like a shadow of a ruling party, one serious mistake made by the ruling party results in their overthrow and the shadow cabinet becomes the ruling party. Other parties are also there but they are not prominent.

 Multi party system: India is a living example of this system. Some of the prominent national parties are the Congress, the BJP, the CPI, the CPI (M), Lok Dal etc. In this system, the party with the highest number of seats in the legislature forms the government. The atmosphere is extremely competitive. Each party has to prove its worth before it can dream of becoming a ruling party. The entire country is represented through the various parties and no section of the society feels isolated.
It has 2 major drawbacks. First of all it suffers from the paradox of simple majority. Secondly in case of a hung legislature a coalition is formed where nobody is ready to shoulder the responsibility. The NDA government and the UPA government have exposed this draw backs.

 Opposition party system: In a democracy, the party or parties that win the seat in the legislature but do not have the right number of seats to form the government, automatically form the opposition. There are a number of functions of the opposition. It acutely observes the policies of the government and crises then wherever and whenever necessary. A bill is not allowed to become a law if the opposition gets together and rejects it. The ruling party is always worried about the presence of the opposition became one never knows when they might become a ruling party.
A money bill can only be introduced in the lower house of the legislature. This gives the opposition a lot of power to control the finances of the government. The expenditure of the government has to be explained to the opposition. The government cannot spend money on irrelevant issues. The opposition has the power to ask question in the question hour, to present the call attention moment on an issue and to bring in the vote of no confidence.
A healthy opposition is that which keeps a check on the activities of the government, praises it for its commendable operation, criticizes it for its wrong policies, and gives its unflinching support for the issues of national interest.

2) Why does coalition arise in the multi party system?

Governments where more than one party shares power are called coalition governments. This is usually present in the multi party system and is generally weaker than one party government. Different parties reflect different opinions and interests. A government by two or more parties usually leads to differences on questions of policy sometime or the other.
A coalition is usually formed by parties when no single party can get majority and the only way out is coalition. But these governments do not have any unity or purpose as the parties sometimes pull in different directions and the government consequently does not become effective. The government is always on tenterhooks as even a small party in the coalition may bring it down and so it always unsure of every party in the coalition. Coalition governments also hamper the progress of the nation because when there is no unity, naturally the government may fall any time and again elections may have to be held to again form the government so the development of the nation takes a back stage.