MP Board · Class 10 · Social Science · Civics: Political PartiesExplain the need for political parties in a democracy. What would happen if there were no political parties?

Introduction to Political Parties\nPolitical parties are easily one of the most visible institutions in a democracy. For most ordinary citizens, democracy is synonymous with political parties. In a large democracy, political parties are necessary because without them, various challenges arise in the governance and representation of citizens.

Why Do We Need Political Parties? (Functions)\nPolitical parties perform several crucial functions in a democratic system, which highlight their absolute necessity:

• Contesting Elections: In most democracies, elections are fought mainly among candidates put up by political parties. Parties select their candidates in different ways. In countries like the USA, members and supporters of a party choose its candidates, whereas in India, top party leaders choose candidates for contesting elections.
• Putting Forward Policies and Programmes: Parties put forward different policies and programmes, and voters choose from them. Each party reduces a vast multitude of opinions into a few basic positions which it supports. A government is expected to base its policies on the line taken by the ruling party.
• Making Laws: Political parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country. Laws are debated and passed in the legislature. But since most members belong to some party, they go by the direction of the party leadership, regardless of their personal opinions.
• Forming and Running Government: The big political policy decisions are taken by political executive authorities that come from political parties. Parties recruit leaders, train them and then make them ministers to run the government in the way they want.
• Role of Opposition: Parties that lose elections play the role of opposition to the parties in power, voicing different views and criticising government failures or wrong policies. Opposition parties also mobilize opposition to the government.
• Shaping Public Opinion: Parties shape public opinion. They raise and highlight issues. Parties have lakhs of members and activists spread all over the country. Many pressure groups are the extensions of political parties among people.
• Access to Government Machinery: Parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes implemented by governments. For an ordinary citizen, it is easy to approach a local party leader than a government officer.

What if There Were No Political Parties?\nIf we imagine a situation without political parties, we can understand their importance further:

• Independent Candidates Only: Every candidate in the elections will be independent. Therefore, no one will be able to make any major policy changes to the policies of the government.
• Unstable Government: The utility of the government will remain uncertain. Elected representatives will be accountable to their constituency, but no one will be responsible for how the country as a whole is run.
• Lack of Uniform Vision: Non-party based panchayat elections in many places show that the village gets split into multiple factions, each putting up a panel of its own, which political parties precisely avoid at the national and state levels by providing a larger umbrella vision.

Conclusion\nThus, political parties are a necessary condition for a democracy. The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative democracies. As societies became large and complex, they needed some agency to gather different views on various issues and to present these to the government. Political parties fulfill this vital democratic requirement comprehensively.