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Political Party
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A '''political party''' is an organization that seeks to attain
politics political power within a
government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns. Some parties are not permitted to or choose not to seek power through elections and so may turn to other forms of pressure, by lobbying, working on the public opinion (even clandestine), sometimes even violence such as terrorism. Parties often espouse a certain
ideology, but may also represent a coalition among disparate interests. However in
Federalist 10 ''Federalist No 10'' James Madison defined a political party or faction as "a number of citizens, whether amounting to a minority or majority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community."
In
parliamentary systems of government, most political parties have an elected leader who, if his or her party is elected by absolute majority, or with a relative majority within the coalition where tradition is thus, becomes
head of government. In
presidential systems, the President may be elected as a representative of his party; however, in many nations he is forced to relinquish his connexions with his party upon the assumption of office as head of state. In certain electoral situations a
coalition government may be formed from members of more than one party. This is more common after elections using
proportional representation rather than a "
Plurality electoral system first past the post" system.
''Partisanship'' is the tendency of supporters of political parties to subscribe to or at least support their party's views and policies in contrast to those of other parties. Differentiation is essential to most political parties: they must be different at least in some ways to other parties to compete in politics and win elections. Extreme partisanship is sometimes referred to as ''partisan warfare''.
Nonpartisan, Single-party, two-party, and multi-party governments
In a
nonpartisan system, no official political parties exist, or the law does not permit political parties. In nonpartisan elections, each candidate for office runs on her or his own merits rather than as a member of a political party. In nonpartisan legislatures, there are no typically formal party alignments within the legislature; even if there are caucuses for specific issues. Despite claiming nonpartisan voting, most members have consistent and identifiable voting patterns.
Historians have frequently interpreted
Federalist No. 10 to imply that the
Founding Fathers of the
United States intended the government to be nonpartisan. The administration of
George Washington and the first few sessions of the
US Congress were nonpartisan. The
unicameral Nebraska Legislature legislature of
Nebraska is the only nonpartisan state government body in the United States. Many city and county governments are nonpartisan. Unless there are legal prohibitions against political parties, factions within nonpartisan governments generally evolve into political parties.
In
Single-party state single-party systems, only one political party is legally allowed to hold effective power. Although minor parties may sometimes be allowed, they are legally required to accept the leadership of the dominant party. This party may not always be, however, identical to the government, although sometimes positions within the party may in fact be more important than positions within the government.
In
Dominant-party systems, opposition parties are allowed, and there may be even a deeply established democratic tradition, but other parties are widely considered to have no real chance of gaining power. Sometimes, political, social and economic circumstances, and public opinion are the reason for others parties' failure. Sometimes, typically in countries with less of an established democratic tradition, it is possible the dominant party will remain in power by using
patronage and sometimes by
voting fraud. In the latter case, the definition between Dominant and single-party system becomes rather blurred. Examples of dominant party systems include the
People's Action Party in
Singapore and the
African National Congress African National Congress in
South Africa South Africa. Also, one party dominant systems existed in
Mexico with the
Institutional Revolutionary Party until the 1990's, and in the southern
United States with the
United States Democratic Party Democratic Party from the
19th century 1880s until the
1970s.
Two-party systems are states such as the
United States and
Jamaica in which there are two political parties dominant to such an extent that electoral success under the banner of any other party is extremely difficult. One
right wing coalition party and one
Left-wing politics left wing coalition party is the most common ideological breakdown in such a system but in two-party states political parties are traditionally
Big tent catch all parties which are ideologically broad and inclusive. The relationship between the voting system used and the two-party system was described by
Maurice Duverger and is known as
Duverger's Law.
Image:ElezioneBrunate.jpg thumb|right|A poster for the European Parliament election 2004 in Italy, showing party lists
Multi-party systems are systems in which there are multiple parties.
In nations such as
Canada and the
United Kingdom, there may be two strong parties, with a third party that is electorally successful. The party may frequently come in second place in elections and pose a threat to the other two parties, but has still never formally held government. However in times of
minority governments, their support is often necessary to either support or defeat a government which means it can have considerable influence under optimal circumstances.
In some rare cases, such as in
Finland, the nation may have an active three-party system, in which all three parties routinely hold top office. It is very rare for a country to have more than three parties who are all equally successful, and all have an equal chance of independently forming government.
More commonly, in cases where there are numerous parties, no one party often has a chance of gaining power, and parties must work with each other to form
coalition governments. This has been an emerging trend in the politics of the
Republic of Ireland.
Parties and directions
Political parties are often considered on a
political spectrum. One typical spectrum has the
Left (political attitude) Left associated with
Radicalism radical or
progressivism progressive policies and the
Right (political attitude) Right with
conservatism conservative or traditional policies. Other analyses include other dimensions such as the political parties' acceptance of
parliamentary democracy as opposed to
authoritarian or
totalitarian attitudes, and
economics economic policies, the Left favoring
social-democracy,
socialism or
communism, while the Right tends to favor
laissez-faire economics or
Fascism.
Centrist parties often adopt a collection of policies that defy easy placing on the political spectrum.
Many parties will have (formal or informal)
Political faction factions within them that have differing views on policy direction.
Colors and emblems for parties
:''Main article: see
political colour''
Generally speaking, over the world, political parties associate themselves with colors, primarily for identification, especially for voter recognition during
elections.
Red usually signifies
Left (political attitude) leftist,
communist or
socialist parties.
Conservative parties generally use
blue or
black. Recently in the
United States, this trend has been reversed.
Pink sometimes signifies moderate
socialist.
Yellow is often used for
liberalism.
Green is the color for
green parties and
Islamist parties.
Orange (colour) Orange is sometimes a color of nationalism, such as in
The Netherlands, or is a color of reform such as in
Ukraine. In the past,
Purple was considered the color of
royal family royalty (like white), but is rarely used in modern-day political parties.
Brown or
black is generally associated with
fascism fascist or
neo-nazism neofascist parties, going back to the
Nazi Party's
brownshirt security guards and Mussolini's blackshirts.
Color associations are useful for mnemonics when
vote voter literacy illiteracy is significant. Another case where they are used is when it is not desirable to make rigorous links to parties, particularly when
coalitions and
alliances are formed between political parties and other organizations, for example:
Red Tory, "Purple" (Red-Blue) alliances,
Red-Green Alliances,
Blue-Green Alliances,
Pan-green coalitions, and
Pan-blue coalitions.
The
emblem of socialist parties is often a red
rose held in a fist. Communist parties often use a
hammer, a
sickle, or
Hammer and sickle both.
International organizations of political parties
During the
19th century 19th and
20th century, many national political parties organized themselves into international organizations along similar policy lines. Notable examples are the
International Workingmen's Association (also called the First International), the
Socialist International (also called the Second International), the
Communist International (also called the Third International), and the
Fourth International, as organizations of
working class party working class parties, or the
Liberal International (yellow), and the
International Democrat Union (blue).
Worldwide green parties have recently established the
Global Greens. The Socialist International, the Liberal International, and the International Democrat Union are all based in
London.
See also
*
List of politics-related topics
*
List of political parties
*
Party class
*
Particracy (a political regime dominated by one or more parties)
*
Political faction (both pre- and within a modern party)
External links
-
U.S. Party Platforms from 1840-2004 at The American Presidency Project: UC Santa Barbara
-
Political parties around the world
-
Political resources on the net
-
Leftist political parties of the world
Category:Elections
Category:Political parties
ast:PartÃu polÃticu
bg:ПартиÑ?
br:Sindikad
ca:Partit polÃtic
cs:Politická strana
cy:Plaid wleidyddol
da:Politisk parti
de:Politische Partei
et:Erakond
es:Partido polÃtico
eo:Partio (politiko)
fr:Parti politique
gl:Partido polÃtico
ko:ì •ë‹¹
id:Partai politik
is:Stjórnmálaflokkur
it:Partito politico
he:מפלגה
lt:Partija
mk:Политичка партија
nl:Politieke partij
ja:政党
nn:Politisk parti
pl:Partia polityczna
pt:Partido polÃtico
ru:ПолитичеÑ?каÑ? партиÑ?
simple:Political party
sk:Politická strana
sl:PolitiÄ?na stranka
sr:Политичка партија
fi:Puolue
sv:Politiskt parti
zh:政党
see
political party
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