Parties and Party Systems

Parties and Party Systems

The Creation and Role of Political Parties and Role Effects

In general political parties have four main relevant dimensions; government control to some degree and in some facet including legislation making and approval and nominations to electoral bids and/or nominations to nonelected positions in government, a stable base which includes mass popular or populous support, they have some internal structure that controls funding and platform and finally they are a source of information to the public. According to Katz the defining characteristics of a party include their general position as "central actors" in democratic as well as other forms of government and they are very unlikely to be replaced by "social movements or governance networks" (2008, p.294) The central role or most important dimension of a political party is its ability to control government in some fashion, the development of this aspect of the party system has to do with the development of the political party as a powerful purveyor of information and stances on political and even social issues. The party system invariably develops in cases where decisions must be made and they must be made, according to the popular support of the party "members" via party platform which is another way of saying opinion. Opposition of one or more parties on issues, often determines the issues that come to the forefront for decision making as well as legislation (Ware, 2002, p. 162). Sometimes this is a good thing while other times the "competition between one or more parties drives passionate gridlock, where passions for issues overrides common sense decision making and irrational decisions get made with the corresponding legislation or policy making (p. 196). While many also claim that without completion and the debate that arises from it the issues would be decided without merit or consideration (p. 196). The other main functions of parties grow out of this primary dimension. Decisions that need to be made are often complex and nearly always in opposition to opposing party views. Katz claims that in their inception parties often grew out of representative bodies, such as parliamentary roles (2008, p. 298).

In some governments, such as the U.S. party systems develop to have two dominant opposing parties, and a host of other's with limited popular support and control of government (Sartori, 2005, p. 164). While in other governments such as the Netherlands there is more fluidity and the creation and pull of political parties seems a comparatively ongoing event, with mergers and new parties emergence and eventual populous acceptance and support which can end in some level of party control of government (Sartori, 2005, p. 161). Mass populous support exists in both examples and drives political participation and populous voting, to determine the "platform" which will dominate the control function of the party (Sartori, 2005, p. 224). This popular support is reciprocal to governmental control and influence, in other words the popular support is fed by the perceived power of control and is the basis to some degree of that very control, through voting and economic support by members and non-members in agreement on issues.

Out of necessity mostly in response to funds needed especially for major election races as well as to maintain continuity and momentum in the party creates internal mechanisms to control infrastructure and funding. Funds are necessary for the party to function in and out of the election process and the party must have some semblance of control over this issue