Political Parties
A political party is an organization consisting of a group of people that represents a political ideology referred to as a platform. Political parties use collective power to champion current political, social, and economic issues. Political parties are an aspect of democracies and republics all over the world. They help individuals gain an understanding of complex social, economic, and political issues that effect the entire or parts of the greater community. Political parties can represent religious, economic, social and political ideologies that become the applied versions of political philosophies. Within a country, there could be one, two, or more political parties competing for power within the elected seats of government. Individuals representing a political party are elected to serve the interests of the political party and the people as a whole in democracies and republics. These individuals can be elected to executive governmental positions like Prime Minister or President. These individuals representing a political party may also serve the interests of the party in the legislative branches of government like the parliament or congress. Political parties also informally affect the judicial branch as judges are not immune to party affiliation; although ideally, a judge is supposed to abstain from party affiliation in name of fairness and impartiality.
The United States is an example of a country with a two-political-party system. Many other Western democracies have more than two parties. An example of a country with a political monopoly on power is China. In the People’s Republic of China there is no legal political party but the Chinese Communist Party.
The United States is the quintessential country with a two party system that volleys political power between two political parties. The law does not stipulate that American political parties should only number two. In fact, American law does not even address the issue of political parties. Political power dynamics are quite complex, in the United States, despite its binary system of Democrats and Republicans. Democrats represent social liberalism, and government intervention in the affairs of the private sector. Democrats believe that government is capable of being a source of wealth for its citizens. Democrats believe that if the government truly represents the will of the people, then government intervention in the economy is an extension of the will of the people. Republicans are much more skeptical of the realm of government, they do not believe that government should ever be a source of economic wealth for a nation. They believe that all wealth should come from the private sector. In regards to social policy, Republicans are conservative and traditional.
Most European republics, democracies, and constitutional democracies have more than two political parties. Germany has 6 major political parties. The political power dynamics in countries like Germany can be extremely complex when the political climate is deeply divided. The many political parties could form coalitions to politically eliminate common political enemies at the ballot. Politics in multi-party states are extremely competitive as elections are often close and represent a variety of different political ideologies. The six major parties of Germany are the Christian Democratic Union, Social Democratic Party, Free Democratic Party, The Left, Alliance ’90/the Greens, and the Christian Social Union. Each of these parties hold seats in the Bundestag, the German parliament and the first three listed are the biggest.
The Peoples Republic of China has one legitimate political party. One would consider this despotism but grievances of the people are heard by the People’s Consultative Council, in which non-binding resolutions are heard before the party leadership for the Chinese Communists to ultimately decide. Power lies solely in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. However, the Chinese Communist Party is, by no means, a monolithic power structure and is subject to factions within one party.
Political parties use ideology to form public policy and there are diverse manners of using the political party as an instrument of power in the best interest of the people.