Political Parties
Political parties are a key element in the political structure of virtually every country in the world. We can differentiate between one-party system, two-party systems and multi party systems. One of the difficulties with looking at political parties in the context of global problems are that political parties, by their nature, work on a national level (remember the different levels of study) and that this means they naturally differ widely in their composition, structure and aims. Political parties are by their nature ideological and sit somewhere on the left - right political spectrum. Use the below link to identify where you are on this.
Despite the fact that there are clear differences between political parties, it should be possible to identify certain features of a political party (and of all political parties). The list below gives some of these features.
(i) They agree on some policies and programmes for the society with a view to promote the collective good.
(ii) Since there can be different views on what is good for all, parties try to persuade people why their policies are better than others.
(iii) They seek to implement these policies by winning popular support through elections.
(iv) Parties reflect fundamental political divisions in a society.
(v) Parties are a part of society and thus involve partisanship.
(vi) Thus, a party is known by which part it stands for, which policies its supports and whose interests it upholds.
How far do you agree with this list of features? To what extent is this applicable in YOUR country? Are there any features you believe are missing?
We often hear the terms left wing and right wing used in Global Politics and this is particularly true when discussing political parties. They are terms that can sometimes confuse us so this video is very useful for reminding us of exactly what these concepts mean. It is a little UK-centric but no less useful for that.