Question

What are the major characteristics of political parties?

Answer 1

Instructions: Mention any five characteristics of a political party.

Solution: The major characteristics of political parties are as follows:

• To be in power: Achieving power through elections is the main objective of political parties. Thus different political parties compete with each other to get power. There is nothing wrong in this competition, but the competition should be fair.
• To pursue an ideology: Every political party has some policies and world views. Parties have a particular stand about social issues. These together make party ideology. The people who consider any specific party ideology as acceptable support that political party. Social support received by a political party is called the ‘mass base’ of a political party.
• To have a Party Agenda: Political parties prepare their party’s agenda on the basis of party ideology. They implement the agenda after they get political power. Even if they do not get political power, political parties try to get the support of people on the basis of this agenda.
• To Establish a Government: Political parties establish the government and govern the nation. The political party which gets the majority in elections forms the government. The parties which do not get a majority act as opposition parties.
• To act as a link between the Government and the people: Political parties work as a link between the Government and the people. Political parties communicate the demands and complaints of the people to the government. The government tries to get support of the people for its policies and programmes through political parties.