Political party

A political party (Latin pars, genitive partis 'part', 'direction') is an association of people, organised in various ways, who strive within a broader political association (a state or similar) to gain as much political say as possible in order to realise their own objective or ideal goals and/or to gain personal advantages. An essential part of gaining or exercising such political power is to fill leadership positions in state and other institutions with party members or people close to the party.

Within a multiparty system, political parties compete with each other for political decision-making positions; they contribute to the formation of political will and thus form an important pillar of the political constitution of a democratic state. In a one-party system, the structure and function of a party necessarily change. Such a party of a "new type" usually takes on a "totalitarian" character.

History

At the time of the emergence of parliaments, parties were mostly loose associations that operated mainly shortly before elections to support candidates. The first parties in a clearly defined party system existed in the English Parliament around 1690-1695, with Whig and Tory parties increasingly defining a political preference for a wide range of policy issues. From the 1830s, parties in England also became fully associated with government and opposition for the first time. The formation of party structures at local, regional and national levels, and the establishment of party secretariats with salaried party secretaries, can be traced largely to social democracy.

Parties in modern democracy

In a mass democracy, political will is formed by the voter electing various candidates from the individual parties. Parliament and government influence the people by means of laws and administrative acts. In this process of mutual influence, the parties have the task of integrating and representing the will of the electorate vis-à-vis the state. In the democratic structure, parties have to provide time-consuming and costly services for the state organs and for those entitled to vote and to be elected, which cannot be performed by state organs or other private institutions. The time is provided by party members, and the costs are met from membership fees, in Germany meanwhile through party financing taken over predominantly by the state.

A particularly important and valuable task of the parties is the evaluation (assessment) and nomination (appointment) of candidates for state functions. The state bodies also expect the parties to comment promptly and professionally on all substantive matters. Those entitled to vote and to be elected expect to be informed by the parties.

There are multi-party and two-party systems, which is not least due to the prevailing electoral law in each case. Majority voting contributes to the formation of two-party systems, e.g. United Kingdom, USA. Here, only one governing and one opposition party is represented in parliament, but with comparatively little commitment of the MP to the guidelines of his or her party (above all in the USA, in the UK again stronger commitment to the party due to intra-parliamentary opposition). Proportional representation, on the other hand, favors the formation of a parliament with several parties, although factional discipline generally plays a greater role (e.g., Netherlands, Germany). Two-party systems lead to clear majorities, and forming a government is relatively easy. Multi-party systems lead to coalition governments, which are more difficult to form and where internal conflicts easily arise. On the other hand, a multiparty system better reflects the complex social reality. In this context, the median voter model is applied.

One-party systems are found only in non-democratic states.