A political party is a Organization articulating a local and national action.

They are differentiated from the Syndicats, the lobbies or other movements by their vocation to control or implement directly their project (conquest and exercise of the political power).

Appearance of the political parties

The political parties appear with the birth of the parliamentary Régime with the XVIIe pennies monarchical England. At the time, the Crown of England knows a deep destabilization because of the systematized use of the procedure of the Impeachment (1670-1680) by the members of Parliament against the Ministers for the king who apply his policy. In response, the Crown will start to buy the votes of the members of Parliament to have a group of permanent support of its policy (Corruption).

For this category of parties of creation Parlement surface, which indicate the parliamentary groups which evolved/moved in political party itself and which precedes historically, it is necessary to add today the parties of external creation, which are political parties which emanate from organizations already in place and inevitably not politicized (Ex: various Trade unions, maconnic cabins and groups). The Workers party (ploughing party) in England for example, is resulting from the alliance of the working Syndicats (trade unions).

Political role

In the modern democracies, the political parties have a very important political role. The principle is to allow individuals or groups dividing of the similar objectives to be combined to promote a common program.

In certain voting systems proportional, the parties (and sometimes of the coalitions of parties) can also play a functional part.

They also tend to impoverish the democratic debate by polarizing it by the creation of vast coalitions. These coalitions involve the regrouping in artificial blocks of various problems. For example the same party will defend doctrines in international policy and another as regards education, which will result in associating the two doctrines artificially whereas they could be sufficiently independent problems to make it possible to study all the alternatives.

Monopartism

The monopartism is a situation where only one party exerts the effective power. It is thus characterized by the absence of political alternative. This irrefutable fact can cover with the very different situations.

In the states with sole party, the law authorizes one party, that of the government. It can sometimes tolerate the presence of minority parties if those accept the prevalence of the controlling party.

It also happens that the opposition parties are officially authorized, but that the dominant party manages to be maintained with the capacity by corruption, the clientelism or the electoral fraud. These countries are generally shown to use contrary practices with the Human rights against the political opponents.

Finally certain parties can defend a sufficiently consensual program so that it is accepted by most of the electorate. If the candidates introduced by these parties are recognized for their competence and their honesty, they can then be maintained with the capacity for decades while complying with the rules of the game scrupulously democratic. It is the case for example social democrats of Socialdemokratiska Arbetarepartiet (SAP) in Sweden. In the same way with the Japan, the democratic Liberal party is with the capacity since 1955 (except 1993 to 1994), the electorate being found in the various factions which composes it.

Two-party system

The Bipartisme relates to countries of Anglo-Saxon tradition like the the United States or the Jamaica in which two parties dominate the political life, and where it is almost impossible with the other parties to gain an election. In this situation, the two parties in opposition are generally of vast coalitions which seek to present the broadest possible programs. Generally, these two coalitions compare one compared to the other by using the traditional axis right - left: freedom of company, lowers loads on a side; important intervention of the State in the economy of the other.

Multi-party system

In nations like the Canada or the the United Kingdom, coexists beside the two dominant historical parties, a third party having a considerable electoral weight and which starts to bore. This third party can occasionally arrive in second place at the elections but never yet exerted the power. In rare cases as that of the Finland it can exist a stable tripartite system, in which each party could arrive alternatively at the head of the elections. It is very rare that four parties can coexist and form governments independently. The parties are then obliged to make from the agreements to form a coalition government.

Collegial multi-party system

In Switzerland, the political culture is based on the collegial structure. This one is a consequence of the political rights of initiative and referendum, which force the parties to find a solution balanced being able to be also accepted by the minority parties. Indeed, the Parliament often prefers to rather yield a little ground on a project than to risk the referendum, being able to lead to a total failure of the project.

Geographical presence

Local, national and international political parties

The representativeness of a party can be very different at the national level and the local level. If it is generally necessary to profit from a good local establishment to gain national elections, certain minor parties at the national level can have an important weight at the time of the local elections. It is the case of the parties separatists for example, or of the parties whose notoriety rests primarily on a local personality (in France: Movement independent ecologist, Movement for France).

During the XIX {{E}} and 20th centuries of the political parties was structured in international associations, gathering of the same political parties obedience. They are in particular the Internationales, especially those founded on the International association of the workers in 1864, also called First International.

Political parties by country

• German Political parties
• Belgian Political parties
• British Political parties
• Canadian Political parties
• Political parties of the Left United States of America
• and political movements French
• Italian Political parties
• Political parties Lebanese
• Portuguese Political parties
• Swedish Political parties
• Swiss Political parties
• Tunisian Political parties

Particular political parties

• Cuba, cuban Communist party, PCC

• Puerto Rico, Left independence Porto Rican (PIP)
• China, Chinese Communist party
• Vietnam, Vietnamese Communist party

Organization of the political parties

To be able perdurer and thus to have time to build an electorate and a political program, the parties must structure and build a certain number of rules allowing to define the system of decision making. One generally finds a president or general secretary, as well as a management committee.

Composition

One distinguishes the sympathizers, who constitute the traditional electorate of the party, of the members, militants who invest themselves directly in the life of the movement. Generally, the members meet periodically and pay a contribution. Divisions often crystallize in conflicts of interests between the various currents or the militants of bases, which defend a certain ideological orthodoxy, and the elected officials or the executives generally more opened with the compromises and alliances.

Primary educations

See also: primary Election

While pushing to vote on a program more than on a candidature, the primary educations make it possible to fight against the plebiscites. The parties have as a function to designate the candidates who will represent them during the election S using primary educations. The mode of selection of the candidates is often regarded as not very transparent and mainly rests on fights of influences that the personalities within the parties are delivered.

Representation of the kinds

In spite of the generalization of the right of Vote of the women in all the democracies these last decades, the proportion of elected women remains generally largely lower than 50%. The proportion of elected women generally corresponds to their representativeness in the political parties (many women/many militants).

The balance of the representation of the sexes in the candidatures for the elections is a subject tackled more and more in the parties Occident with. Thus the French law imposes on the political parties a minimum percentage of candidates on the lists. Often, the respect or not of this minimum percentage involves, for the party, of the advantages or maluses on the financial plan.

Financing

The parties finance the electoral campaigns. They also need funds to ensure their own operation. This money can come from gifts of individuals or public finances.

In France

See also: Financing of the French political parties

The private gifts in the beginning were severely regulated to limit the influence of the large companies on the elected officials. This situation involved significant drops of the private resources and much of parties used illegal funding sources ( fictional jobs, surfacturation of government contracts, networks françafricains…). To rectify this situation, the legislator with set up a public finance whose amount varies according to the last electoral results.

In Germany

The financing of the political parties in Germany is regulated in Parteiengesetz of 1967, modified in 1984,2000 and 2002. The gifts are not limited. The moral persons must give too. There is not an organization to control the gifts like (CNCCFP) in France.

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