Political parties may be seen as
organisations seeking to achieve common goals of its members through first,
acquiring and then exercising power. Parties are motivated by certain ideas or
may restrict themselves to a certain view known as an ideology.
Andrew Heywood classifies certain parties
as ‘catch-all parties’ which “drastically reduce their ideology baggage in
order to appeal to the largest possible number of voters”. And then labels the
German Social Democrats as “de-ideologised”. However, that’s probably not what
the Germans thought.
Ideology is possibly one of the most crucial
elements for the establishment of a political party even if not everyone can
understand it. All parties are bonded by this ideology even though it may
change or reduce in extent overtime. Shunning an ideology altogether is one of
the reasons a party may decline and ultimately dissolve. In such cases it may
fuse into another, stronger party which either adds weightage to their ideology
or they may take advantage of pre-established institutions in doing so. This ideology
may not be explicit but it would be impossible for people to join or support a
party if it has no ideology in the first place.
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