Why do we need political parties?

Political parties are one of the most visible parts of any democracy. For many ordinary people, the idea of "democracy" is almost the same as the idea of "political parties." Even citizens in remote areas who may not know about the Constitution often know about political parties.

However, this visibility doesn't mean parties are popular. People are often very critical of them, blaming them for everything that is wrong with democracy and politics. Parties are frequently associated with social and political divisions. This leads to a fundamental question: do we even need political parties?

A hundred years ago, few countries had political parties. Today, almost every country does. To understand why they have become so essential, we first need to understand what they are and what they do.

Meaning

A political party is a group of people who come together with the shared goal of contesting elections and holding power in the government. They agree on certain policies and programs for society, aiming to promote what they see as the collective good.

Since people have different ideas about what is best for society, parties try to persuade voters that their policies are better than those of their rivals. They aim to win popular support in elections so they can implement these policies.

Key aspects of a political party include:

Partisanship: Parties represent a specific part of society and therefore involve partisanship. A partisan is a person who is strongly committed to a party and may have difficulty taking a balanced view on an issue. A party is known by the part of society it stands for, the policies it supports, and the interests it protects.
Three Components: A political party is made up of three main components:
- The leaders: Those who make major decisions and contest elections.
- The active members: Those who are involved in party work, meetings, and campaigns.
- The followers: The ordinary citizens who support the party, often by voting for it.

Functions

Political parties perform several essential functions to exercise political power. Without these functions, a modern democracy would struggle to operate.

Parties contest elections. In most democracies, elections are a contest between candidates put forward by political parties. Parties select their candidates in different ways. In countries like the USA, members and supporters choose the candidates. In India, top party leaders typically make this decision.
Parties present policies and programmes. A government cannot manage the countless individual opinions in a large society. Parties group similar opinions together and present a clear set of policies and programs. Voters can then choose which set of ideas they prefer. The party that wins is expected to base its governance on the policies it promoted.
Parties play a key role in making laws. While laws are formally debated and passed in the legislature, most lawmakers belong to a party. They usually follow the direction of their party leadership, which ensures a more decisive law-making process.
Parties form and run governments. The political executive, which makes the big policy decisions, comes from the political parties. Parties recruit and train leaders, who then become ministers and run the government according to the party's vision.
Parties play the role of opposition. Parties that lose elections are not without a job. They form the opposition, holding the ruling party accountable by criticizing its failures and wrong policies. They also mobilize opposition to the government, ensuring that different views are heard.
Parties shape public opinion. Parties raise and highlight important issues through their members and activists across the country. They often launch movements to address problems faced by the people. As a result, public opinion often forms along the lines that different parties take on an issue.
Parties provide access to government machinery. For an ordinary citizen, it's often easier to approach a local party leader than a government officer. This makes parties a crucial link between the people and government services or welfare schemes. Because of this, people feel close to parties even if they don't fully trust them. Parties must be responsive to people's needs, or they risk being rejected in the next election.

Necessity

The functions listed above explain why we need political parties. We can understand their necessity even better by imagining a democracy without them.

Example

Imagine an election where every candidate is independent. No one could make promises about major national policies because they wouldn't have the backing of a larger group. A government might be formed, but it would be very unstable. Elected representatives would only be accountable for their local constituencies, and no one would be responsible for how the country as a whole is run.

The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative democracies. As societies grew larger and more complex, they needed a way to:

Gather different views on various issues and present them to the government.
Bring representatives together to form a responsible and stable government.
Create a mechanism to support or restrain the government and its policies.

Political parties fulfill all these needs. They are a necessary condition for a functioning democracy.

How many parties should we have?

In a democracy, any group of citizens is free to form a political party. India, for example, has over 750 parties registered with the Election Commission. However, only a handful are serious contenders in elections. This raises the question: how many major parties are good for a democracy?

There are generally three types of party systems in the world.

One-Party System

In some countries, only one party is allowed to control and run the government. These are called one-party systems.

Example: In China, only the Communist Party is allowed to rule.
Drawback: This is not a democratic option because it eliminates political competition, which is essential for a healthy democracy. A democratic system must allow at least two parties to compete and provide a fair chance for them to come to power.

Two-Party System

In this system, power usually changes between two main parties. Other parties may exist and win a few seats, but only the two major parties have a realistic chance of forming a government.

Examples: The United States of America and the United Kingdom.

Multiparty System

When several parties compete for power and more than two have a reasonable chance of coming to power, either alone or in alliance with others, it is called a multiparty system.

Example: India has a multiparty system.
Coalition Government: In this system, a government is often formed by various parties coming together in a coalition.
Alliance or Front: When several parties join hands to contest elections and win power, it is called an alliance or a front. For example, India has seen major alliances like the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), and the Left Front.
Advantages & Disadvantages: This system can seem messy and lead to political instability. However, it also allows a wide variety of interests and opinions to have political representation.

Note

There is no single "best" party system. A country's party system evolves over a long time based on its unique circumstances, such as the nature of its society, its social and regional divisions, its political history, and its election system. India's multiparty system, for instance, developed because its vast social and geographical diversity cannot be easily represented by just two or three parties.

National parties

In a federal country like India, there are two main kinds of political parties:

Parties present in only one of the federal units (State parties).
Parties present in several or all units of the federation (National parties).

Every party must register with the Election Commission. The Commission offers special facilities to large, established parties, which are called 'recognised political parties'. They are given a unique election symbol that only their official candidates can use.

The Election Commission has set clear criteria for recognition:

A State party must secure at least six percent of the total votes in a state's legislative assembly election and win at least two seats.
A national party must secure at least six percent of the total votes in Lok Sabha elections (or in Assembly elections in four states) and win at least four seats in the Lok Sabha.

According to a 2023 notification, India has six recognized national parties.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP): Formed in 2012 out of the anti-corruption movement, it focuses on clean administration and good governance. It has formed governments in Delhi and Punjab.
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP): Formed in 1984 under Kanshi Ram, it seeks to represent and secure power for the 'bahujan samaj' (dalits, adivasis, OBCs, and religious minorities). Its main base is in Uttar Pradesh.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP): Founded in 1980, it draws inspiration from India's ancient culture and the ideas of integral humanism. Cultural nationalism ('Hindutva') is a key element of its ideology. It leads the ruling NDA government at the Centre.
Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M): Founded in 1964, it believes in Marxism-Leninism and supports socialism, secularism, and democracy. It has strong support in West Bengal, Kerala, and Tripura.
Indian National Congress (INC): Popularly known as the Congress Party, it is one of the world's oldest parties, founded in 1885. It is a centrist party that espouses secularism and the welfare of weaker sections and minorities. It led the UPA government from 2004 to 2019.
National People's Party (NPP): Formed in 2013, it is the first party from North East India to become a national party. It believes in empowering all sections of society and recognizing regional development challenges.

State parties

Besides the national parties, most other major parties are classified by the Election Commission as State parties, often called regional parties. However, these parties are not always regional in their ideology. Some, like the Samajwadi Party, have a national-level organization. Others, like the Biju Janata Dal and Telangana Rashtra Samithi, are more conscious of their state identity.

Over the last few decades, the number and strength of these parties have grown. This has made the Indian Parliament more politically diverse. Since 1996, no single national party was able to secure a majority in the Lok Sabha on its own (until 2014), compelling them to form alliances with State parties. This has strengthened federalism and democracy in India.

Challenges to political parties

Because parties are the most visible face of democracy, they are often blamed when democracy doesn't function well. There are four major challenges that political parties across the world, including in India, need to overcome.

Lack of internal democracy

There is a tendency in political parties for power to be concentrated in the hands of one or a few leaders at the top.

Parties often do not keep membership registers, hold regular organizational meetings, or conduct internal elections.
Ordinary members have little information about what happens inside the party and lack the means to influence decisions.
As a result, personal loyalty to top leaders becomes more important than loyalty to the party's principles.

Dynastic succession

This challenge is related to the first. Since there are few transparent procedures, leaders are in a position to favor people close to them, including family members.

In many parties, top positions are controlled by members of a single family.
This is unfair to other members and is bad for democracy, as people without adequate experience or popular support can come to occupy powerful positions.

Growing role of money and muscle power

Since parties are focused on winning elections, they sometimes use shortcuts.

They tend to nominate candidates who have or can raise a lot of money.
Rich people and companies that fund parties can influence their policies and decisions.
In some cases, parties support criminals who they believe can win elections. This increasing role of wealth in politics is a major concern for democracies worldwide.

Lack of meaningful choice for voters

Often, parties do not seem to offer voters a meaningful choice.

In recent years, ideological differences between major parties have declined. For example, in Britain, the difference between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party on fundamental economic policies is very small.
In India, too, the differences among major parties on economic policies have reduced.
Voters who want genuinely different policies may have no real option. Sometimes, the same set of leaders keeps shifting from one party to another, further reducing the choice available to voters.

How can parties be reformed?

To face these challenges, political parties need reform. But are they willing to change? In a democracy, the final decisions are made by leaders who represent these very parties. If they don't want to reform, it is difficult to force them.

Here are some recent efforts and suggestions for reform in India:

Recent Efforts and Laws

Anti-Defection Law: The Constitution was amended to prevent elected MLAs and MPs from changing parties after an election, a practice known as defection. Now, if an elected representative changes parties, they will lose their seat in the legislature. This has helped reduce defections but has also made it harder for MPs and MLAs to express dissent against their party leadership.
Supreme Court Order on Affidavits: The Supreme Court passed an order making it mandatory for every election candidate to file an affidavit detailing their property and any criminal cases pending against them. This has made a lot of information available to the public, but there is no system to verify if the information is true.
Election Commission Order: The Election Commission made it necessary for political parties to hold organizational elections and file their income tax returns. Parties have started doing so, but often it is just a formality.

Suggestions for Reform

A law should be made to regulate the internal affairs of parties, making it compulsory to maintain member registers and hold open elections for top posts.
It should be mandatory for parties to give a minimum number of tickets (perhaps one-third) to women candidates.
There should be state funding of elections, where the government gives parties money (or support in kind, like petrol and paper) to cover their election expenses.