Political
parties have become popular recently and have been a great service providing
functions of representation, elite formation and recruitment, goal formation,
interest articulation, socialization and mobilization and organization of
government.
But
with that said, political parties have been on a decline with time. In a
political party interests of the majority are given preference to which leaves
out the interests of the single issue voters. New types of parties have been on
a rise like activist groups and their membership at least in the United States
is increasing. These groups are either environmentalists, feminists or LGBT
groups which fight for the minorities’ interest of the community.
Another
reason why political parties are at a decline is because first political
parties were a tool used to create awareness about candidates for elections.
Media is taken over that aspect now and the public opinion can now be found out
through media and polls. The political parties no longer serve as medium to
create awareness among the people or serve as an intermediary between the
government and the people. Further more
campaigns are more candidate centered rather than being about the political label
the party stands for. People are more likely to vote for the candidate that
supports the view they hold rather than the vision of the political party or
what it represents.
The
reasons stated above make it seem like political parties are at a decline. How
ever, in my opinion that is not the case. I think, their significance has merely
changed. Their functions have changed but they still continue to provide a
meaningful platform for the people who are a member of them.
3 comments:
Considering the decline of parties, one has to keep in mind that parties are the one which help in running a country,otherwise we have dictatorship. So unless we have any other effective system to run a country, party system can not be declined easily.
Political campaigns have become more candidate centered but I feel that statement can only hold true for Western democracies, In our part of the world, we still put our vote against the party we support. Very few people will actually know the candidate representing their constituency (unless they belong from the important ones, like NA 250 and NA 122, Karachi and Lahore respectively) These candidates do not always represent party policy in it's entirety, but only hold some aspects the same. Another candidate may be better suited to represent the certain constituency than the person from the political party one may support.
A decline in parties could be a blessing in disguise. If each candidate had to make a name for himself rather than riding on the ideology of the party we could have a lot of competent people striving for the well being of their people rather than having candidates who have to give up on their ideals because of the leaderships stand on various issues. This in fact would lead to interesting debates on important matters without bias or self interest.
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