Political Parties Class 10 Social Science Notes and Questions

The reason to accept multii-party system in India is that this is a more democratic option for a diverse country like India.

India is a large country with great social and geographical diversities.  These    diversities can only be nurtured by a multi-party system.

This is because ‘One party’ system does not provide any democratic option.

A political party is a group of people, who have come together to contest elections to hold power in the government.

(a) China

Three components of a political party are :

(i)   Leaders 
(ii) Active members
(iii) Followers

A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. They agree on some policies and programmers for the society with a view to promote the collective good.

The ideologies of Bharatiya Janta party are

(a)   Cultural Nationalism

(b)  Resloving India’s ancient culture and value.

“Political parties are necessary condition for a democracy” because :

(i)   Without political parties, democracies cannot exist.

(ii)  if we do not  have political parties; in such a situation  every candidate  in elections will be independent, and will have a local point of view.

(iii) No one will be able to make any promises to the people about any major policy changes.

(iv) The government may be formed but its utility will remain uncertain.

(v)  Elected representatives  will be accountable to their constituency for what they do in their locality. But no one will be responsible for how the country will run.

(vi) The role of opposition party in a democracy necessitates the existence of political parties.

(vii)  As  societies  become  large  and  complex they also need some agencies to gather different views on various issues and to present these to the government,  that’s  why political parties are needed.

Multi-party system :

If several parties complete for power, more than two parties have a reasonable chance of coming to power either on their own strength or by alliance with others, we call it a multi-party system.

India adopted a multi party system because :

(i)   There is social and geographical diversity in India.

(ii)  India is such a large country which is not easily represented by two or three parties.

(iii) The system allows a variety of interests and opinions for political representation.

Main features of two-party system :

(i)   Power usually changes between two parties, though several other parties may exist.

(ii)  In such system, people get clear choice.

(iii) The party  that  wins majority  forms  the government and the other sits in opposition.

(iv) Strong opposition is good for democracy.

(v)  Prompt decisions are taken and implemented.

(vi) Promotes more development and less corruption.

We need political parties because of the functions that the political parties perform:

(i)   They contest in Elections.

(ii) They put forward different policies and program for the betterment of society.

(iii) They play a decisive role in the making of Laws that affect each of us.

(iv) They form and run the government.

(v)   They play the role of Opposition to the Ruling Party.

(vi) They shape public opinion, as they raise and highlight issues.

(vii) They provide people access to  government machinery and welfare schemes implemented by the government.

The function  of a political party that strengthens the democracy are as follows  :

(i)   Contesting Elections: Political parties contest elections. A political party nominates its candidate for the electoral contest in various constituencies. This provides a variety of choice of personalities for the people to vote for.

(ii)  Policies: Political parties put forward different policies and program so that the voters can choose from  amongst  them.  A  political  party  brings a large number of similar opinions under one umbrella. These opinions are channelized to form policies and program. The policies and program of the ruling party generally become the government policies.

(iii) Making Law: Political parties play a decisive role in making laws for the country that benefits the whole population.

(iv) Playing Opposition: A party which does not get majority or come under the majority coalition, needs to play the role of opposition. This forms the basis of checks and balances in a democracy.

(v)  Shaping   Public   Opinion:   Political   parties shape public opinion.  They do so by raising and highlighting issues in the legislature and in the media.

(vi) Providing Access to Government Machinery: Political parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes implemented by governments. Parties need to be responsive to people’s needs and demands thus bring good governance.

We need political parties for the following reasons:

(i)   If there were no political party, then each and every candidate would be independent. So many individuals would only have interests for their own constituencies.

(ii)  They would not  think  about  the  collective national interest.

(iii) Thus, a political party is necessary to bring diverse people on a common platform, so that bigger issues can be taken care of.

(iv) The democracy which is being practiced all over the world is called representative democracy. In   this  system,  governance  is  done   through people’s representative because it is impossible for each citizen to directly participate in governance.

(v)  The need for representative democracy has given rise to political parties.

Functions of political parties :

(i) Parties  contest  elections  and  form government.

(ii)  They put forward policies and programmes that benefit the people.

(iii) Parties play a decisive role in making laws that affect the society.

(iv) Parties form government.

(v)  Defeated parties in the election play its role of opposition of the parties in power.

(vi) Parties shape public opinion.

(vii) Parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes.

“Political parties are necessary condition for a democracy” because :

(i)   Without political parties, democracies cannot exist.

(ii)  if we do not  have political parties; in such a situation  every candidate  in elections will be independent, and will have a local point of view.

(iii) No one will be able to make any promises to the people about any major policy changes.

(iv) The government may be formed but its utility will remain uncertain.

(v)  Elected representatives  will be accountable to their constituency for what they do in their locality. But no one will be responsible for how the country will run.

(vi) The role of opposition party in a democracy necessitates the existence of political parties.

(vii)  As  societies  become  large  and  complex they also need some agencies to gather different views on various issues and to present these to the government,  that’s  why political parties are needed.

Bi-party system :

(i)  In some countries, power usually changes between two main  parties. It  is also known  as Bi-party system.

(ii)  In this system, the government is formed by one party and the other plays the role of opposition. Merit–This system allows stability of government as no coalition is there.

Demerit–In this system, only two main parties have a serious chance of winning majority seats to form the government. Hence people do not really have choices.

Multi-party system :  If several parties compete for power and more than two parties have a reasonable chance of coming to power either on their own strength or in alliance with other, we call it a multi-party system.

India adopted a Multi party system because :

(i)   There is social diversity in India.

(ii)  India  is such  a  large and  diverse country which cannot easily be represented by two or three parties.

Merits  :

(i)  This system allows a variety of interests and opinions to enjoy political representation.

(ii) People can make a choice between several candidates.

Demerits :

(i)     No  one  party  is likely to  gain power alone. Therefore, it leads to  difficulty in functioning of the government.

(ii)  Leads to political instability and often appears to be very messy with too many leaders.

Samajwadi  party,   Samta  Party,  Rashtriya Janta Dal

United Progressive Alliance -UPA.

Bharatiya Janta Party

A political party that secures at least 6% of the total votes  in an election to the Legislative Assembly of a state and wins at least two seats is recognized as a state party.

(a) Cultural nationalism

(b)  Restoring India’s ancient culture and values

Marxist Forward Bloc, All India Forward Bloc

(d) Bahujan Samaj Party

(c ) Election symbol

(a) Election Commission

(c ) Maharashtra

(b) Dr B.R.Ambedkar

(a) Bahujan Samaj Party

(b) Communist Party of India

Regional party  refers  to  a  political  party, which has its base in a particular region may be covering one or more states. They may have limited or pan-India aspirations and objectives. National party implies a political party that extends over the entire nation, in terms of representation and  the area of influence. The national and the state parties are recognized by the Election Commission on the following criteria :

State parties seeking national level coalition : Before general election of 2014, in three general elections not one national party was able to secure a majority on its own in Lok Sabha. Thus the national parties were compelled to form alliances with state or regional parties. Since 1996, nearly every one of the state parties has got an opportunity to be a part of one or the other national level coalition government. This has contributed to the strengthening of federalism and democracy.

A regional political party is a party that is present in only some states.

Conditions required for a party to be recognized as a regional political party are :

(i)   A party that secures at least six percent of the total votes in an election to the Legislative Assembly of a state.

(ii)  Wins  at  least two  seats in  the  Legislative Assembly.

National political parties have units in the various states, they follow the same policies, programmes and strategy that is decided at the national level.

Conditions required :

(i)   A party that secures at least 6% of the total votes in general elections of Lok Sabha or assembly elections in four states.

(ii)  Wins at least 4 seats in Lok Sabha.

Jharkhand–JMM–Jharkhand  Mukti  Morcha (Bow and Arrow)

Maharasthra–INC–Indian National Congress Odisha–BJD–Biju Janata Dal. (Conch)

Now, India has seven recognized national parties – Congress, BJP, BSP, CPI, CPI-M, NCP and All India Trinamool Congress. Recognition as a national or a state party ensures that the election symbol of that party is not used by any other political entity in polls across India.

The national political party which espouses secularism and welfare of weaker sections and minorities is the Indian National Congress.

Four features of this party are listed below :

(i)   Founded in 1885.

(ii) Dominated  Indian  politics, both at the national and state levels, for several decades after India’s independence.

(iii) Ruling party at the centre till 1977 and then from 1980 to 1989. After 1989, its support  base declined.

(iv) A centrist party (neither rightist nor leftist) in its ideological orientation.

The state and regional political parties strengthen federalism in following ways:

They provide variety of choice to people as they each have different agendas and focus on issues more relevant to their regions.

They provide a platform for different pressure and social groups  and  communities  to  put  forward their demands. They make the parliament diverse by sharing power of government by helping to form a coalition government.

For example in 2014 election the UPA was formed by Nationalist Congress party (NCP), Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) etc.

Political Party: A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. Political parties take up policies and programmes for the society with a view to promote the collective good. The political party tries to persuade people why their policies are better than other parties, and tries to win the support of people.

Three Components of a Political Party:

(i) The Leaders – Every political party has some prominent  leaders who formulate policies and programmes of the party and choose candidates for contesting elections.

(ii) The Active Members :  They are involved in different committees of the party and participate directly in the party activities.

(iii) The Followers :  They believe in the party’s ideology and support  the party by casting their votes in favour of the party at the time of election.

‘Bhartiya Janta Party’ (BJP) gets  inspiration from India’s ancient culture and values.

Four important features :

(i)  Cultural nationalism or ‘Hindutva’ is an important element in its conception of India nationhood and politics.

(ii)  The party wants full territorial and political integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India.

(iii) A uniform  civil code for  all people living in the country irrespective of region and ban on religious conversions.

(iv) Founded in 1980, by reviving the erstwhile Bharatiya Jana Sangh, its support base increased substantially in the 1990s.

Challenge of dynastic succession

Because they are part of the society, hence political parties involve partisanship.

Three challenges faced by political parties in India are :

(i)   Lack of internal democracy.

(ii)  Challenge of dynastic succession

(iii) Growing role of money and muscle power. Often parties do not seem to offer a meaningful choice to the voters.

No party system is ideal for all countries and all situations :

(i)   Party system is not something, any country can choose.

(ii)  It evolves over a long period depending on the nature of the society.

(iii) Its social and regional division, its history of policies and its system of elections.

(iv) Each country develops a party system that is conditioned by its special circumstances.

Dynastic succession is one of the most serious challenges before the political parties because :

(i)   Most political parties do not  practice open and transparent procedures for their functioning.

(ii)  There is no way for an ordinary worker to rise to the top in a party.

(iii) In many parties, the top positions are always controlled by members of one family.

(vi) This practice is unfair to other members of that party and is also bad for democracy.

(v)   People who do not have adequate experience or popular support come to occupy position of power.

Money and muscle power play an important role in elections because :

(i)   Parties  tend  to  nominate  those  candidates who have or can raise large amounts of money.

(ii)  Rich people and companies who give funds to the parties tend to have influence on the policies and decisions of the party.

(iii) In some cases, parties support criminals who can win election.

(iv) Democrats  all over the  world  are  worried over the increasing role of rich people and big companies in democratic politics.

Efforts made by legal organizations to reform political parties in India include :

(i)  To check defection, the Constitution was amended to prevent elected MLA’s and MP’s from changing parties.

(ii)  The Supreme Court passed an order to reduce the influence of money and criminals by making it  mandatory   to  produce  an  affidavit by  the candidates giving details of property and criminal cases pending on them.

(iii) The Election Commission passed an order making it necessary for political parties to hold their organizational election and file their income tax returns.

(i)  Defection in  politics means  moving  of a  person  from  one  party  to  another  party  for some personal benefit. It means changing party allegiance from the party on which the person got elected to a different party.

The anti-defection rule prevents it.

Political parties shape public opinions in the following  way :

(a)   They raise and highlight issues thus raising awareness amongst the public.

(b)  Parties have members  and  activists spread all over the country, who spread the party line of thought.

(c)   Many of the pressure groups are the extensions of political parties among different sections of the society.

Popular dissatisfaction exists with political parties all over the world. It mainly focusses on four areas of working of political parties :

(i)   Lack of internal democracy within parties.

(ii)  Dynastic succession.

(iii) Growing role of money and muscle power in parties.

(iv) There is not a meaningful choice to the voters.

(i)  The Constitution was amended to prevent elected MLA’s and MP’s from changing parties. This was done because many elected representatives were indulging in defection in order to become ministers or for cash rewards. Now, if any MLA or MP changes parties, he or she loses the seat in the legislature or the parliment.

(ii)  The Supreme Court passed an order to reduce the influence of money and criminals.

Now, it is mandatory for every candidate who contests elections to file an affidavit giving details of his property and criminal cases pending against him. The new system has made a lot of information available  to the public. But there is no system to check if the information given by the candidates is true and complete.

(iii) The Election Commission passed an order making it necessary for political parties to hold their organizational elections and file their income tax returns.

(iv) The  parties  have  started  doing  so  but sometimes it is mere formality. It is not clear if this step has led to greater internal democracy in political parties.

Effective measures to reform political parties are :

(i)   A law should be made to regulate the internal affairs of political parties and hold internal elections.

(ii)  It should be made compulsory for political parties to maintain a record of members.

(iii) It should be made mandatory for political parties  to  give a  minimum  number  of tickets; about 1/3rd to women candidates.

(iv) There should be a quota for women in the decision making bodies of the party.

(v)  There should be state funding of elections.

(vi) The government should give parties money to support their election expenses for example, petrol, paper, telephone, etc. or in cash.

(vii) Vote casting for  Indian  citizens should  be made compulsory in each election.

(viii) Data regarding caste and religion, OBC, SC, ST should not be utilized during election period for castist or religion based politics.

In all the democracies, citizens have rights but they should be able to claim these rights.

1.    When  the elected political parties become the ruling party then they give these rights to the citizens legally and practically.

2.   In all the democracies, people need good governance, for this we need political parties which contest in elections.

3.    The society needs  rapid  development,  this work is done by the political parties. They can introduce many new policies and program for the welfare of the citizens.

4.    The Opposition  political party also plays a vital role by finding mistakes in the work of the ruling party so that the development stays on course.

5.    If  there  were  no  political  parties  in  such cases we would only have independent candidates contesting election with individual agenda and not a national agenda.

6.    The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative democracies. Large societies need a way to bring various representatives together so that a responsible government could be formed.

We can say that parties are a necessary condition for a democracy.

Functions of the ruling parties :

(i)   They play a major role in making laws and policies for the country.

(ii)  They  form  the  government  and  run  the country for the benefit of its citizens.

Functions of the opposition parties :

(i)   They  oppose  the  government  by  voicing different views about policies and actions taken.

(ii)  They criticise government for its failure and wrong practices.

(iii) They mobilise opposition to the government, which ensures that the government functions in an upright manner.

(i) Lack of internal democracy : The first challenge is lack of internal democracy within parties. Concentration of power in one or few leaders at the top. Some parties are run like private groups.

(ii)  Dynastic succession :  Favour  people  close to  them  or  their  family  members.  In  many parties, the top positions are always controlled by members of one family, this defies the concept of democracy.

(iii) Money and muscle power : The third challenge is about growing role of money and muscle power in parties, especially during elections.

(iv) Meaningful  choice  :  The  fourth  challenge is that very often parties do not seem to offer a meaningful choice to the voters.

(v)  Details of membership are not kept. Also there is no clarity in financial matters.

(vi) No organisational meetings or internal elections for organisational posts are held.