5 Main Functions of Political Parties
Political parties are very important in the contemporary state system because they give meaning to the democratic process as important institutional components of liberal democracy.
Thus, this article will examine the functions of political parties. Involved in this analysis is the explanation of the primary functions of political parties as instruments of political interaction and participation.
Meaning of a Political Party
A political party is an organized group of people with at least roughly similar political aims and opinions, that seeks to influence public policy by getting its candidates elected to public office.
The purpose of the political party is to get candidates elected to public office. In a sustainable and well-functioning democracy, political parties are deeply and durably rooted in specific substructures of society.
To this end, they can link the governmental institutions to the elements of the civil society in a free and fair society and are regarded as necessary for the effective functioning of a democratic political system.
The presence of the political party is a healthy situation for a democratic society since it allows people to make a more evolved and effective decision.
In a broader perspective, a political party is a means through which the people can speak to the government and have a say in the process of governance.
Functions of Political Parties
In a democratic society, political parties perform the following key roles, among others:
1. The Governing Function
Without political parties, this multifaceted modem civilization would become unmanageable. Political parties make easier the creation of governments. They also give stability to the government, particularly if members of the authority belong to a party.
Political parties usually collaborate between the two main areas of government: the legislative body and the administrative.
Parties provide a very important opposition and criticism, from within as well as out of government.
2. The Electoral Function
Election in democratic societies is dependent on political parties. Political parties generally select candidates at elections. They offer funds and services for election campaigns.
Recent electoral investigation has discovered that the common man has some problems in making the right selection in elections because complication of matters and the diversity of choices confuse voters.
For this reason, one of the strange functions of political parties is to make politics more reachable to citizens.
Political parties need to organize the vote bank to get votes and also to protect the election of their candidate to parliament or other public office. On other hand, all political parties try to find ways to persuade voters that their candidates are more reliable than those of its rivals.
They set up policies which the voter is required to support. Parties supply a tag with 1 which the electorate can identify and take responsibility, since the voter is capable of holding them accountable for policy achievements or disappointments.
3. The representative function
Political parties facilitate the formation of ideas of people to be understood and they guarantee that issues of social concern in the political scheme.
They are the main input mechanisms that guarantee the fulfillment of the needs and desires of the society. This kind of function is, one of the basic and essential functions of a party.
4. The policy, or goal setting, function while performing their representative functions
political parties try to create some policies. They are one of the agencies through which people of a country try to attain their joint goal.
While doing this, political parties gather support of the common people and through this, they ultimately gain political power.
This helps them, get into the parliamentary system of a specific state and there, they make and implement the policies they had promised the common masses.
Political parties also introduce ideas and matters; they clear other goals for the society in ways that could improve the chances for selecting those values.
5. The Recruitment and Participation Function
In modem and democratic societies most political campaigners are members of parties. In these countries political parties perform the main function of giving confidence to people to become political activists.
They are in charge of supplying to the states their political principals. Leaders gain office because of their high profiles and participants in a presidential selection are generally political party leaders.
In the parliamentary system the head of the majority in parliament usually becomes prime minister and other place of duty are generally filled by most important party members.
Sometimes, political parties offer a training class for policy makers, and equip them with information and skills. Otherwise, in societies where political parties are powerless, power is generally in the hands of traditional leaders like that of military institutions or ruling families.
Conclusion on 5 Main Functions of Political Parties
Political parties are principal pillars of any democratic system. They provide an opportunity for citizens to make political decisions either by influencing government policies or voting for the competing candidates in elections.
By so doing, they not only serve as intermediaries between the government and civil society but also offer citizens a choice in governance.
All these are central to the wider consolidation of democracy.
In this post, we have examined the meaning and functions of political parties as instruments of political interaction.
The post also examined the meaning and functions of political parties.
Involved this analysis is the functions of pressure groups and strategies they deploy in achieving their objectives.