Importance of Political Parties in a Democratic System: An Essay

This essay explores the critical role of political parties in a democratic system. It argues that political parties are essential for a country's governance, highlighting their functions in electoral processes, policy formulation, and representing citizens' views. The essay examines various party systems, including one-party and multi-party systems, and discusses the benefits and consequences of each. It emphasizes the importance of political parties in gathering public opinion, promoting voter interests, and ensuring communication between the government and the people. The essay also discusses the influence of political parties on government policies and their role in educating and inspiring citizens to participate in the development of the nation. The conclusion reiterates the significance of political parties for a healthy democracy, while acknowledging the complexities of different party systems.

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Political parties bring a group of people together having common ideology about the
government and country’s governance process. It is the right of every individual to organise
with like-minded citizens and form a political party to attain some common political goals.
The political parties generally provide and present an ideology that is favoured by a large
number of people in order to establish good governance in the country. The thesis statement
for this essay is that political parties are essential for the democracy.
Political parties are essential for a country because they perform wide range of
functions and responsibilities in the favour of citizens. Political parties are an indispensable
part in almost every country in the world. Political parties are responsible for getting
government power through electoral processes and amend, reform, or formulating new
policies in favour of people and their development (Hollyer, Rosendorff & Vreeland, 2011).
In a democracy, political parties are responsible for collecting the views and ideas of people
and provide these ideas to the government to form or amend the policies in favour of
government. Large numbers of people think that parties are necessary for the democracy and
without political parties, one cannot even think about an effective democracy. Political parties
are not only associated with people and their common ideology rather they also help in
formulating laws and amending constitution with the help of parliament and governing bodies
(Fukuyama, 2015). As the democracy majorly focuses on citizens and the political parties are
also formed as per the ideology of citizens, it is the responsibility of political parties to think
about the interest of citizens and communicate them about the current policies and programs
that provide growth and opportunities for the people. Political parties are vital parts of any
democracy.
There are various types of party system that are popular in a democratic country such
as one party system or multiple party systems. Apart from this, there are three type of one
party system, i.e. authoritarian party system, totalitarian party system, and dominate non-
authoritarian party system. In the authoritarian party system, a single party controls the
interest aggregation and articulation and no there is no party is allowed to compete. In such
type of political system, opposition is suppressed by the political party and no other party is
allowed to raise their voice against the ruling political party (Cross, 2011). The second type
of political party is called totalitarian party system. Under this political party system, only
one party is allowed to form legitimate rights for governing body and no competition for

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political power is allowed. The totalitarian party system use indoctrination and think that
interest of people and interests of party are equal. China is a big example of this type of
political system that uses mass campaign. For example, the totalitarian party system in China
has used Cultural Revolution to mobilize people. Apart from this, it is also believed by the
people that North Korea also uses the same totalitarian party system in the country. However,
the Kim Yong not is a democratic leader rather he is an autocratic leader rather than a
democratic leader who care for his citizens (Diamond, 2015). The third system of political
system is called non-authoritarian party system that exist only one strong party that is
responsible for governing and no other party or new party can challenge this strong political
party that governs the country.
The second is two or multi-party system where two or more than two parties strongly
competes with each other for the political power and they may have similar or different
ideology for their citizens. This type of political system is more democratic in nature. For
example, USA, UK, and India are some of the great examples of multi-party system and these
are some of the big democratic country of the world (Leeper & Slothuus, 2014). One cannot
imagine a democracy without any political party. In such type of political systems, where two
major and strong parties fight with each other for the welfare and good governance is
generally healthy for a democratic country. In such type of democratic country, where two or
more parties are fighting for political power through electoral process, is an important factor
in the democracy. However, it can be said that democracy without political parties cannot be
assumed. Political parties have their own benefits and political consequences for a nation but
it is really crucial to know which political party system is good for a country (Coppedge, et.
al., 2011).
The aim of any political party is to won the election and gets as many as people as
their representative members in the parliament and helps to create new policy and rules for
the citizens. The large numbers of representative in the government helps the political parties
to represent the views of citizens and care about the good governance (Magaloni & Kricheli,
2010). Promoting interest of voters is the major responsibility of ant political parties and it
also sets the foundation of any democracy. Apart from this, political parties also draw up
party programmes and encourage people to join the party program and present their views in
the party program that what they need from the existing government. It is also crucial that it
is the role of political parties to care, promote the nation’s interest as the first priority, and

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take care about the role and functions of current government that how they are performing to
accomplish the requirement of citizens. Political parties are also responsible for ensuring the
two-way communication system between government and people. According to E.E.
Schattschneider (1942), political parties ensure the foundation of democracy and also help a
country to create a healthy democracy (Bardi, Bartolini, & Trechsel, 2014). Public opinion is
one of the crucial elements of a democratic system and considering public opinion for the
development and growth of people is crucial for a democratic country. The role of political
parties is not only limited to raise the issue of citizens or bring them together under a
common ideological view rather it also help the nation to establish a strong democracy in
which the interest of public is considered by every political party and by the ruling
government. Many academicians and practitioners think that political parties and political
systems serves as the foundation of democracy and these two factors are necessary (but not
sufficient) conditions for forming a healthy and solid democracy. The political parties are
responsible for motivating people to elect government for the better development of people
and country and form policies for the good governance (Danzell, 2011).
The role of political parties in a democratic system is not limited to collect people
having similar ideology rather a political party also invite various groups into political system
to inspire and educate people, instead of responding to the public concern only (Peters, 2010).
Apart from this, political parties help a democratic nation and its citizens to get education and
inspire them to act in the favour of nation development. After integration, the political parties
focuses on transferring knowledge which is essential for political socialization and further
help to minimise the public concern. The political parties are also responsible for educating
people and influence them to speak in public and influence the government policies as well. It
is also noticeable here that political parties generally work under a party system and the party
system reflects the party behaviour (Slothuus & De Vreese, 2010). Another thing that is
crucial to know the role of a political party is to influence the government’s policies and force
them to make policies for the citizens as per their demand and need. The another thing that is
crucial in democracy is that only one party can govern the country but the rest of the parties
can review the work of the government and provide them suggestions to perform their
responsibilities towards the people in the country. However, it is also considerable that there
is no any space for political competition in a democracy (Chadwick & Stromer-Galley,
2016).

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In conclusion, the political party determines the success or growth of a democratic
country. In other words, it can be said that one cannot imagine democracy without a political
party. However, there are various types of political parties and they all have their own
political agenda and political interest. However, democracy generally cannot be possible
under one party system because it does not allow other parties to compete in the election.
This is the only reason that one party system cannot be better for better governance under a
democratic country. However, two-party system provides opportunities to people to select
one best option for the governance and for the development of people. Although, it is tough
to say which political party system is good for a democratic country but it can be said that
political parties are really important for a democratic country to protect the rights of people
and ensure a good governance system in the country.

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References
Bardi, L., Bartolini, S., & Trechsel, A. H. (2014). Responsive and responsible? The role of
parties in twenty-first century politics. West European Politics, 37(2), 235-252.
Chadwick, A., & Stromer-Galley, J. (2016). Digital media, power, and democracy in parties
and election campaigns: Party decline or party renewal?. Retrieved from:
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Coppedge, M., Gerring, J., Altman, D., Bernhard, M., Fish, S., Hicken, A., & Semetko, H. A.
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Cross, W. (2011). Political parties. USA: UBC Press.
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Diamond, L. (2015). Facing up to the democratic recession. Journal of Democracy, 26(1),
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Hollyer, J. R., Rosendorff, B. P., & Vreeland, J. R. (2011). Democracy and transparency. The
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Leeper, T. J., & Slothuus, R. (2014). Political parties, motivated reasoning, and public
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Magaloni, B., & Kricheli, R. (2010). Political order and one-party rule. Annual review of
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Peters, B. G. (2010). Bureaucracy and democracy. Public Organization Review, 10(3), 209-
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Slothuus, R., & De Vreese, C. H. (2010). Political parties, motivated reasoning, and issue
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