FREE Political Party Reforms for a Stronger Democracy Essay (original) (raw)

Political Party Reforms for A Stronger Democracy.

Political Science fraternity all over the world has been discussing innumerable aspects of party systems and related issues for the last several years. But, one hardly comes across any staunch supporter of the concept of organisationally strong political parties. Generally speaking there appears to be some kind of a lurking, unarticulated fear of strong and organisationally sound political parties, with its origin, probably in the Nazi experience of Germany in the first half of this century. However reprehensible that experience may be, it would be absolutely incorrect to assume that any strong, organisationally sound political party will necessarily go the Nazi way. In fact it is entirely the opposite. When one advocates the concept of stronger and organisationally sound political parties, it can only be in favour of parties with perfect internal democracy and functional transparency, with no place for authoritarianism. In this paper, it is advocated that for Democracy to deliver, well-organized political parties are a must.
In the 1998 edition the volume "Political Parties of the World" the editors have come out with a largely acceptable definition of a political party. It says that a political party means "the organisation seeking to obtain or retain direct political power over the process of government at some level, usually through the ballot box". The definition of a political party by Chambers is as follows, "A relatively durable social formation, which seeks offices or power in govt. exhibits a structure or organization, which links leaders at the centres of govt. to a significant popular following in the political arena and its local enclaves and generates in-group perspectives or at least symbols of identification or loyalty (1975:5)".
This volume also brings about the important features of the worldwide party scene. These features are as follows:.

1. Greece

An important stance that the New Democracy takes is that they believe that a strong local government means more and better democracy, less bureaucracy, more development and more active citizens. ... The New Democracy party is in strong favor of a complete separation of powers within Greece's government (Important Moments). ... The New Democracy believes that every citizen should be active in politics. ... New Democracy as a popular political party believes in and establishes a dialogue with the people" (Important Moments). ... The New Democracy and PASOK are two extremely important ...

2. Political Parties

Political parties are absolutely necessary to democratic government. Most modern democracies are representative democracies. ... In a representative democracy, some means is needed for nominating candidates for public office and for selecting issues for public debate. Political parties perform these functions. ... In such parliamentary democracies as the United Kingdom, the head of the government "the prime minister "faces fewer problems in organizing the government. ...

3. Political Parties

In the United States, the labels of the two major political parties have always had a relatively strong appeal for the voters. ... There has hardly been a strong national party organization in this country. ... This was so we would never develop a strong party. ... It was the reforms that robbed party organizations of their control. ... They also point to a long series of "reforms." ...

4. Czech Policial Pparties

The Czech republic has had a democracy for a little more than a decade. ... In Czechoslovakia during the period between the First and Second World Wars there was also a democracy. ... The Communist party was the choice of most of the people who did not believe in a liberal democracy. ... Since the KSCM did not reform itself it left the Czech Republic without a reformed Communist party, this is unique in central Europe. ... The lack of a reformed Communist Party has had many profound effects on the politics of the Czech Republic. ...

5. Third Party

The Free Soil Party is a strong example of a single-issue party formed with the goal of abolishing slavery in the United States. ... In the 1996 Election Perot ran again as the Reform Party Candidate. ... A more multi-party system is necessary in a democracy as opposed to a two-party system. ... Before recently the Reform Party in the United States was making some substantial gains in American Politics. The Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura was a Reform Party Candidate when he was elected. ...

6. Jeffersonian Vs. Jacksonian Democracy

In the political scene, federalists were gone and the democratic republicans were the only major political party. ... This created the two party system. ... They were also for a strong federal government and protective tariffs. ... Jeffersonian Democracy felt that democracy should be limited to its political aspects. ... Also during this era, the people became more and more interested in a reform. ...

7. Look at Chinese Reforms in the Twentieth Century

Third, the regime's constitutionalist and prodemoecratic ideology, strong liberal-technocrat faction, deep roots in society, and substantial legitimacy and organizational strength facilitated reform. ... Taiwan's strong footing in many areas certainly helped push it in the direction of democracy, but could all of these conditions have been in place if it were not for the help of CCK and the KMT? ... CCK believed that "subjected the ruling party [the KMT] to more media and electoral oversight and to increased political competition would revitalize its sense of mission, help get rid ...

8. Political Diversity

The early 19th century saw the rise and fall of many different political parties until, in 1824, the Republican and Democrat parties came to power and have enjoyed a permanent monopoly over American democracy ever since. ... The American public, political arena and news media still have a long way to go until the value of having a strong third party candidate is fully realized. ... By not giving equal coverage to strong third parties, the media is inadvertently swaying popular opinion into the belief that third party politics are of less importance or have less substance. ... For example...

9. Third Parties Campaign Finance Reform

Are the structural barriers for third party candidates created by the two-party political system removable? The problem is not a lack of challenges to the two major political parties. ... According to Neto and Cox: "A polity can tend towards bipartism either because it has a strong electoral system or because it has few cleavages. ... A predictive model using only institutional variables explains sixty one percent (61%) of the variation in the effective number of parties among democracies as Neto and Cox have proven in their research. ... Second, the handicaps will be reviewed including ...

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