Forms of organization of political parties. Political Party

Politics plays a very important role in the life of a modern person. Whether it is good or not is up to everyone individually. However, a person who wants to be the master of his life and be competent in any situation must know, and more importantly, understand basic political concepts.

Today we will get acquainted with the simplest of them - a political party. So, structure and function, as well as other important characteristics.

Definition

Translated from Latin, the word "party" means "group" or "part". It was first used in the ancient world. For example, Aristotle spoke of the parties of the inhabitants of the mountainous regions, plains or coast. In addition, he called this term a group of politicians who are part of the ruler's inner circle.

This concept was also used to describe a group of people in whose hands the government is. And in the form in which the common man in the street was used to seeing political parties, they began to appear in the 18th-19th centuries, during the formation of parliamentarism.

Weber's interpretation

In modern political science, the evolution of political parties, which was proposed by M. Weber, is accepted. According to his work, the first stage in the formation of the party is the "aristocratic circle". As it develops, it grows into a "political club" and then into a "mass party".

According to Weber, the essential features of any political party were:

1. The desire to use power in accordance with the vision of solving problems (political and other), which is inherent only in this party.
2. Ideological and political orientation.
3. Voluntary beginnings and amateur performances.

Different approaches

Getting acquainted with political science, you can stumble upon at least several approaches to defining a political party. From the point of view of a liberal approach, it is an ideological association. And the institutional approach sees the party as an organization functioning in the state system.

Meanwhile, the traditional approach links party definition to the electoral process, the promotion of candidates, the election race, and the pursuit of legislative and executive power.

And finally, the Marxist approach looks at such a thing as a political party from the point of view of class positions. The party, in this interpretation, is the most conscious and active part of the class whose interests it defends.

Legal approach

It is worth considering separately. The legal approach regulates:

1. The political status of the party and its functions.
2. Continuous activity.
3. Compulsory participation in elections.
4. The level of participation in the political life of the state.
5. The degree of organization.
6. Comparison with other political institutions.
7. The number of members.
8. Name.

From the point of view of the legal approach, unions of voters, all sorts of associations and other inconstant parties are not.

He also assumes that in the executive branch - the most important procedure, which is nothing other than the official recognition of the party and provides it with state protection.

Only after passing the official registration procedure, an organization can run for elections, obtain state funding and get other opportunities that legalized political parties have. A table with the classification of lots will be shown below.

Party signs

Today, in political science, you can find the following signs of these organizations:

1. Any party carries a certain ideology, or at least an orientation, a picture of the world.
2. A party is an organization or association of people that is sustainable over time.
3. is the conquest of power. It is worth noting here that a separate party cannot receive full-fledged power, but only participates in the implementation of power functions.
4. Any party strives to enlist the support of voters, up to the acceptance of the most active of them into its ranks.

Any party has an internal and external structure. So, the internal structure includes the rank and file members and the leadership. The latter, in turn, is divided into functionaries and top management. Political parties, the structure of which is structured in a different way, practically do not occur.

Party activists who work at all levels, in local and central bodies of the association are called functionaries. They organize the work of various parts of the party and disseminate its ideology. Top management includes leaders, ideologists, the most experienced and authoritative figures who determine the vector of the organization's development, goals and ways to achieve them. Well, ordinary party members are those who work in primary organizations and carry out the task of leadership.

The external structure includes the electorate, that is, people who are close to the ideas of the party and who are ready to give their vote for these ideas in the elections. Almost all political parties are based on this. The structure of each organization may differ slightly, but in general it looks like this.

Financing

The most important aspect of the development of any party is its funding. As a rule, the sources of material support are:

1. Party members' contributions.
2. Sponsored funds.
3. Funds raised from own activities.
4. Budget funds (during the pre-election campaign).
5. Foreign funding (prohibited in a number of countries).

Goals

As a rule, political parties, the structure and essence of which we are already familiar with, pursue the following goals in their activities:

1. Formation of public opinion.
2. Expression of citizenship.
3. Political education and education of the people.
4. Nomination (introduction) of their representatives to state and local government bodies.

Party functions

To more specifically understand what place political parties occupy in the political system, it is worth considering their functions. They are: political, social and ideological.

Political:

1. Power Struggle.
2. Recruiting leaders and ruling elite.

Social:

1. Socialization of citizens.
2. Social representation.

Ideological:

1. Creation of ideology.
2. Propaganda.

The functions of political parties make it possible to determine the tasks that they solve. First, the party is a kind of link between the people and state bodies. Thus, it neutralizes the spontaneous forms of political activity of citizens.

Secondly, the party acts as a very effective form of overcoming civil passivity and apathy towards politics. Third, the party provides a peaceful way to distribute or redistribute political power and avoids social upheaval.

Classification

Now let's look at what political parties are like. The table with the classification will help us with this:

The main document to which all branches of this or that organization are subordinate is the party charter. It includes information about:

1. The goals and objectives of the party.
2. Party attributes.
3. Membership Terms.
4. Party structure.
5. The order of personnel operations.
6. Funding sources and so on.

Conclusion

Today we have learned what political parties are in the political system. Summarizing the above, we can conclude that the party is an organization aimed at conquering power in order to promote the interests of a particular class of the population. Political parties, the structure of which, if at least slightly different, are highly dependent on support, both from the electorate and from sponsors.

The concept of a political party: it is an organized community of people that has certain social tasks, representing the interests of a certain social class. The hallmark of a political party is the seizure of power. The party is joined by people who have similar ideological views, who are politically active and who want to rule the state.

Political parties and signs of a political party:

• The existence of a common ideology and goals that the organization strives to achieve.
• The existence of a political program explaining why this organization exists.
• The presence of a party charter or other document regulating the internal life of the party.
• The presence of positions in the organization (party chairman, deputy chairman, and others).
• The organization has local offices in different regions. Regional offices maintain contact with the party leadership.
• Voluntariness. People come to the party because they strive to translate their ideas concerning the development of society into reality.

Types of political parties.

Political parties can be subdivided according to different criteria, but in this section we will discuss the division by ideological orientation.

Classification of political parties

It is possible to classify political parties not only in the way described in the above table. Let's consider the main methods of classification:

• Ruling or opposition... The first exercises state power and is under it, the second is in opposition and protests. Oppositional social and political movements can exist both on a legal basis and on an illegal basis.
• Personnel or mass... The first will include a small number of professional politicians. Such social and political movements are active only in the pre-election period, they are actively sponsored by large capital owners. The mass party, on the other hand, has a hierarchy, structure, operates continuously, constantly. In them there is a connection between party and discipline. LDPR, Communist Party, United Russia - all these parties are, of course, massive. They conduct their activities continuously.
• Left, center and right... This amazing division of left and right began during the French Revolution. Those who took seats to the left (simply by their location) in Parliament proposed the most radical and revolutionary ideas, those who sat to the right insisted on preserving the existing order of things, while the center was called a "swamp", since it tended to one, then in the other direction and did not show decisive activity. The "left" stand for state property, social justice, revolution or significant reforms, while the right stand for private property, a strong, stable and strong state, preserve the institution of private property, oppose "rebellious" movements, agree to reforms with great difficulty and nothing more when you really need it. The center looks at the situation with a compromise view, seeks consensus, order, but in reality does not show a desire to change the existing order.
• Reform and revolutionary... The first will carry out reforms, that is, gradual transformations of social life that do not destroy the fundamental foundations, the second is distinguished by the fact that they advocate with the slogan "We will destroy the whole world to the core." The goal of the revolutionaries is to build a new just society on the ruins of the rotten old order.

Parties play an important role in the political system of society. The functions of political parties: they foster an active civic position among the population, take part in governing the state, and how the country will develop largely depends on them. A striking example would be the Bolshevik Party, which from a small, strictly conspiratorial and disciplined organization turned into the CPSU, which stood at the head of the vast Soviet Union.

Today there are several "non-party" states. These are, as a rule, absolute monarchies according to the form of government: Oman, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bhutan (until 2008). In these countries, there is either a direct ban on political parties (Ghana, Jordan), or there are no corresponding prerequisites for their creation (Bhutan, Oman, Kuwait). A similar situation can be under an influential head of state, when the allowed parties play a small role (Libya at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries).

Party colors and emblems

All over the world, political parties associate themselves with certain colors (mostly in order to stand out in elections). Red is usually the color of left-wing parties: communists, socialists, etc. The colors of conservative parties are blue and black. Exception: In the United States, the Republican Party is red and the Democratic Party is blue.

Objectives of political parties

Any party directly sets itself the task of seizing political power in the country or taking part in it through its representatives in state and local government bodies.

In the Russian Federation, in accordance with paragraph 4 of Article 3 of the Federal Law "On Political Parties", the main objectives of the parties are:

• shaping public opinion;
• political education and education of citizens;
• expression of opinions of citizens on any issues of public life, bringing these opinions to the attention of the general public and government bodies;
• nominating candidates (lists of candidates) for elections at various levels.

Other goals are determined by the political program of the party.

Names of political parties

The name of the party may reflect the party ideology (Communist Party, Union of Right Forces), the main goal (task) of the party's activities (Russian Network Party for the Support of Small and Medium Business, Party of the Revival of Russia); social (Party of Pensioners), national (Russian Party), religious (Christian Democratic Union) or other group, the interests of which the party defends. The name of the party may reflect the history of its emergence, as was the case with United Russia: the original name of the party, the All-Russian political party Unity and Fatherland - United Russia, reflected the names of the founders - the associations Unity, Fatherland and "All Russia". The name can also be just a memorable brand that does not carry a special semantic load. There are also other approaches to the naming of parties, for example, the use of the initial letters of the names or surnames of the founders ("Yabloko" - I AM Vlinsky, B oldyrev, L ukin).

The name of a Russian political party consists of two parts: an indication of the organizational and legal form "political party" and the name of the party. It is interesting that a tautology is often found in the names of political parties, for example, the Political Party "Communist Party of the Russian Federation". The names of some parties do not contain the word “party” in their names (Political Party “Russian National Unity”). Party names can also be short and succinct, such as Volya (political party). The tautology in the name, apparently, is associated with the period when there was no law on political parties, and the procedure for creating a political party was not streamlined. Parties then existed in the form of political public associations and, accordingly, their names contained an indication only of this organizational form. In order to show that the association is a political party and not another public organization, the word "party" was included directly in the name of the political public association. Some political parties have had “historical” names, such as the Communist Party or the Social Democratic Party of Russia. It is typical for political parties to indicate their organizational and legal form directly in the name of the party.

A political party can use in its name the words "Russia", "Russian Federation" and words and phrases formed on their basis. At the same time, it is exempted from paying the state duty for the use of the names “Russia”, “Russian Federation” and their derivatives (clause 1), part 1 of article 333.35 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In the Republic of Belarus, on the contrary, there is a ban on the use of the words “Republic of Belarus”, “Belarus”, “national” and “people's” in the name of a political party, unless otherwise specified by the President of the Republic of Belarus (paragraph 4 of Article 14 Law of the Republic of Belarus of October 5, 1994 "On Political Parties"). The Law on Political Parties does not contain a prohibition on the use of names of other states, that is, the name of a political party may even coincide with the name of a foreign state, although this prohibition is established in relation to the symbols of political parties. The laws of the CIS countries on political parties bypass this issue. In some European states (Great Britain, Slovenia, Croatia) it is established that the name of a political party cannot contain the names of foreign states. For example, in Great Britain, a political party in its name can only use the words "Britain", "British", "England", "English", "national", "Scotland", "Scots", "Scottish", "United Kingdom", Wales, Welsh, Gibraltar, Gibraltar and their derivatives. This spread is primarily due to the fact that the UK is allowed to create regional political parties.

The name of the party can have a semantic meaning, or it can represent an arbitrary set of words. There is also no restriction on the length of the name (for example, in Ireland, a party may be refused registration due to an excessively long name: as a rule, it should not consist of more than 6 words).

International political associations

Organization and structure of a political party

Different countries have different approaches to organizing the work of political parties. Russia and many other countries have a fixed membership, while in the United States there is no fixed party membership. In Russia, the party structure is based on approximately the same system at three levels: party - regional branches - local branches. At the level of the party itself, the supreme body is the congress, which permanently forms the governing bodies, at the regional level - the meeting (conference) and governing bodies of the regional branch. Certain requirements for the structure and governing bodies are contained in Law No. 95-FZ "On Political Parties", which prescribes the presence of regional branches, collegial governing bodies and the leading role of the congress.

The Law "On Political Parties" (Art. 3, item 1) determines, among other things, that a political party must have regional branches in at least half of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, have at least fifty (from 2010 - forty) thousand ( from April 2, 2012 - 500) members, its governing and other bodies must be located on the territory of the Russian Federation.

In Russia, political parties have the right to nominate candidates for any elective office and to any representative body, and the exclusive right to nominate lists of candidates in elections to the State Duma, as well as in elections to legislative (representative) bodies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation according to the proportional system. According to article 30 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, political parties are created freely, without any permission at the founding congress or conference of the party. Membership in a party, according to the same article, is voluntary, and no one can be forced to join the party or be deprived of the opportunity to leave it. The freedom to join a party is limited by law for certain officials (judges, military personnel).

Along with the freedom to create and operate parties, their equality, state support, the legal status of parties includes their obligations to society and the state, financial transparency, compliance of program guidelines and activities with the constitutional legal order. The Constitution prohibits the creation and activity of political parties, the goals and actions of which are aimed at forcibly changing the foundations of the constitutional system and violating the integrity of the Russian Federation, undermining the security of the state, creating armed formations, inciting social, racial, national and religious hatred (Article 13, Part 5).

• Mexico has federal, state and municipal parties. State parties can only run in their own state, and municipal parties only in their municipality, while they can have multiple registrations in different states and municipalities. At the same time, a party automatically loses its registration if it does not get into the parliament of the corresponding level in the elections.
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Political parties

Political Party- an independent public association that has a stable structure and a permanent nature of activity, expressing the political will of its members and supporters, setting as its tasks participation in determining the political course of a given state, in the formation of bodies (including representative) of state power and administration.

Today there are several "non-party" states. These are, as a rule, absolute monarchies according to the form of government: Oman, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bhutan (until 2008). In these countries, there is either a direct ban on political parties (Ghana, Jordan), or there are no corresponding prerequisites for their creation (Bhutan, Oman, Kuwait). A similar situation can be with an influential head of state, when the allowed parties have a small role (Libya at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries).

Parties and directions

Political parties are often associated with the political spectrum. In one of them (often mentioned when describing political parties in Spain, Italy, etc.), supporters of radical changes are called “leftists”, and conservatives and founders of the idea of ​​preserving traditions are called “rightists”. A more common scale is that the "left" is considered to be the communists, socialists and social democrats, and the "right" - liberals, conservatives and fascists (the latter include the National Socialists, whose adherents are also sometimes called far right). Centrist parties are those that maintain a list of rules that apply to different parts of the political spectrum. In most parties, there are factions that support views slightly different from the official policy of the party.

Party colors and emblems

Rally of supporters of Viktor Yanukovych in Donetsk, 2004

All over the world, political parties associate themselves with certain colors (mostly in order to stand out in elections). Red is usually the color of left-wing parties: communists, socialists, etc. The colors of conservative parties are blue and black. Exception: In the United States, the Republican Party is red and the Democratic Party is blue.

Names of political parties

The name of the party may reflect the party's ideology (such as the Liberal Democratic Party or the Communist Party); the main goal (task) of the party (Russian network party for support of small and medium-sized businesses, "Party of the Revival of Russia"); a social, national ("Russian Party"), religious and other group whose interests are defended by (the Agrarian Party or the "Automobile Club of Russia" party), just a memorable brand that does not carry a special semantic load, the initial letters of the names or surnames of the founders of the party ("Yabloko "- I AM Vlinsky, B oldyrev, L ukin)

The name of a Russian political party consists of two parts: an indication of the organizational and legal form “political party” and the name of the party. Interestingly, there is often a tautology in the names of political parties, for example, the Political Party "Communist Party of the Russian Federation", the Political Party "Russian Ecological Party" Green ". The names of some parties are well chosen and do not contain the word “party” in the name (Political Party “Russian National Unity”). Party names can also be short and succinct, such as Volya (political party). The tautology in the name, apparently, is associated with the period when there was no law on political parties, and the procedure for creating a political party was not streamlined. Parties then existed in the form of political public associations and, accordingly, their names contained an indication only of this organizational form. In order to show that the association is a political party and not another public organization, the word "party" was included directly in the name of the political public association. Some political parties have had “historical” names, such as the Communist Party or the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party. It is typical for political parties to indicate their organizational and legal form directly in the name of the party.

A political party can use in its name the words "Russia", "Russian Federation" and words and phrases formed on their basis. At the same time, it is exempted from paying the state duty for the use of the names "Russia", "Russian Federation" and their derivatives (clause 1), part 1 of article 333.35 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation). In the Republic of Belarus, on the contrary, a ban is established on the use of the words "Republic of Belarus", "Belarus", "national" and "people's" in the name of a political party, unless otherwise specified by the President of the Republic of Belarus (paragraph 4 of Article 14 Law of the Republic of Belarus of October 5, 1994 "On Political Parties"). The Law on Political Parties does not contain a prohibition on the use of names of other states, that is, the name of a political party may even coincide with the name of a foreign state, although this prohibition is established in relation to the symbols of political parties. The laws of the CIS countries on political parties bypass this issue. In some European states (Great Britain, Slovenia, Croatia) it is established that the name of a political party cannot contain the names of foreign states. For example, in Great Britain, a political party in its name can only use the words "Britain", "British", "England", "English", "national", "Scotland", "Scots", "Scottish", "United Kingdom", Wales, Welsh, Gibraltar, Gibraltar and their derivatives. This spread is primarily due to the fact that the UK is allowed to create regional political parties.

The name of the party can have a semantic meaning, or it can represent an arbitrary set of words. There is also no restriction on the length of the name (for example, in Ireland, a party may be refused registration due to an excessively long name: as a rule, it should not consist of more than 6 words).

International political associations

Organization and structure of a political party

Different countries have different approaches to organizing the work of political parties. Russia and many other countries have a fixed membership, while in the United States there is no fixed party membership. In Russia, the party structure is based on approximately the same system at three levels - party - regional branches - local branches. At the level of the party itself, the supreme body is the congress, which permanently forms the governing bodies, at the regional level - the meeting (conference) and governing bodies of the regional branch.

Notes (edit)

Links

• Zhuravlev V.V., Korolev A.A. Parties for society or society for a party? Dialogue at the "Round Table" at the IGI MosGU // Knowledge. Understanding. Skill... - 2005. - No. 2. - S. 59-68.
• Bordiga A. Party and class

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Definition of the term political party.

Constitutional definition of the term Political Party.

- Political Party and political science literature.

Typology of political parties.

Ideal batch types.

Non-party, one-party, two-party and multi-party governments.

Names of political parties.

Party colors and emblems.

Party funding.

Transformation of the status of a party as a political institution.

Political party, party

NSartia - NSthen a group of people united by a community of ideas, interests, or singled out for doing some kind of work.

A political party is stable hierarchical political, uniting, on a voluntary basis, persons with common social-class, political-economic, national-cultural, religious and other interests and ideals, with the goal of conquering political power or participating in it.

A political party is an independent public association of enterprises that has a stable structure and a permanent nature of activity that expresses the political will of its members and supporters.

Political Party — this is public firm (business combination), directly setting itself the task of seizing state power, keeping it in their hands, using the state apparatus in the interests of certain social strata.

A political party is public business combination, the main purpose of whose participation in the political process is the conquest and implementation (or participation in the implementation) of the state authorities within the framework and on the basis of the main law of the state and current legislation.

A political party is company, uniting individuals on the basis of common political views, recognition of a certain system of values ​​that are embodied in a program that outlines the main directions of state policy.







Definition of the term political party

A political party is a permanent association of enterprises with a formalized organizational structure.

A political party is a political party that expresses the interests of the social class or its stratum, unites their most active representatives and guides them in achieving certain goals and ideals.

Unlike trade unions, youth, women's, anti-war, national, environmental and other organizations that implement the function of expressing and protecting the interests of certain social strata and groups mainly in the role of pressure groups on state structures, political parties are guided by the direct use of political authorities.

Often, in the definition of political parties, emphasis is placed on their role in the electoral process... K. von Beime characterizes parties as public companies competing with each other in elections in order to achieve power. However, this approach does not take into account that, depending on its ideological platform or the current situation, one or another political party can seek to conquer power or participate in its implementation not only by parliamentary methods, observing the rules of political struggle accepted in society, but also by resorting to violence.

The first political parties appeared in ancient Greece (of course, not in the form in which they exist now). For modern political parties, it is characteristic, in particular, that they:

Are political firms;

They are public (non-governmental) companies;

They are stable and fairly broad political associations with their own bodies, regional offices, ordinary members;

Have their own program and charter;

Built on specific organizational principles;

Have a fixed membership (although, for example, the US Republican and Democratic parties traditionally do not have a fixed membership);

They rely on a certain social stratum, a mass base in the person of those voting for party representatives in the elections.

In democratic states, parties are prohibited that use subversive, violent methods of struggle for, parties of a fascist, militaristic, totalitarian type with a program aimed at overthrowing the government, abolishing the main law of the country, and with the discipline of the military and paramilitary type.

All parties are required to strictly observe the constitution and the democratic regime of internal party life. Parties are civil society organizations and cannot arrogate to themselves the functions of state power. In the international document of the Copenhagen meeting in 1990, within the framework of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), it is written that parties should not merge with states. This entry warns against repeating the experience of totalitarian one-party regimes, including the Soviet one, when a single party swallowed not only, but to a large extent, civil society. In such cases, the so-called "party states" are formed. By itself, the concept of a “party state” (“state of parties”) does not initially carry anything bad in itself: it served only as a justification for the need for legal regulation of the activities of parties. The main idea of ​​this concept is the recognition of parties as necessary elements of the functioning of democratic state institutions.

The role and importance of political parties in societies with different levels of economic, social and cultural development, specific historical and national traditions are not the same. However, some common functions of parties can be distinguished.

The most important function seems to be the coordination and generalization of the heterogeneous interests and needs of various groups and individuals. Then these generalized interests are formulated in programs, requirements, slogans and communicated to the authorities.

This is the function of representation of interests. In addition, parties can also perform "government" functions by participating in the development, application and implementation of rules for the interaction of political institutions, subordinating or controlling the authorities.

Representing and expressing the interests of social groups, bringing them to the attention of the authorities, parties carry out the function of communication, that is, ensure the relationship between the authorities and society. Cultivating certain values ​​and stereotypes of behavior through means of agitation and propaganda, political parties implement the function of political socialization, that is, the function of transferring political experience, traditions, and culture to subsequent generations. Finally, by selecting the best candidates for leadership positions, parties help to improve the quality of the elite by performing the function of political recruiting. However, in totalitarian systems, political parties can directly perform the function of exercising power. Usually these are monopoly ruling parties that concentrate the entire scope of power functions in their hands.








Constitutional definition of the term political party.

In the constitutions of different countries, including the Russian one, there is no legal definition of a political party. These constitutions define only the goals and objectives of the parties: political parties "facilitate the expression of opinions by voting" (Art. 4 the main law of the state France); parties contribute to "the expression of the people's will and firm of political power" (Art. 47 of the Portuguese Constitution). More precisely, the function of a political party is defined in the main law of the country of Italy: parties are created in order to “democratically contribute to the definition of national politicians”(Article 49). Art. 29 of the basic law of the state Greece: "Parties must serve the free functioning of a democratic regime."

The constitutions of these states enshrine the principles of free formation of parties, a multi-party system, and political pluralism. The idea of ​​political pluralism is that there are various interests in society and, therefore, they are expressed by different parties that compete in the struggle for power, for votes.

At present, in the main Law of the country of the Russian Federation, the legal status of political parties has been brought into line with world democratic standards: political pluralism is recognized, in the struggle for power by winning votes, parties of a totalitarian type that profess violence as the main means of political struggle are prohibited (Article 13 the main law of the state RF). The party is organized on the initiative of the founders and can start legal activity after the registration of its charter with the Ministry of Justice. Of Russia... Its activities may be prohibited if it violates the constitutional framework, violates the requirements of the main law of the country and the law for political parties.








Political party andpolitical scienceand Iliteraturesa.

In political science literature, a political party (from Lat. Pars, partis - part) is defined as the most active and organized part of a social stratum or class, formulating and expressing its interests. Or, more fully, as "a specialized organizationally ordered group that unites the most active adherents of certain goals (ideologies, leaders) and serves to fight for the conquest and use of political power in society."

Both parties and the state are political organizations, political public institutions. Moreover, the state and parties are traditionally considered "elements of the political system of society." At the same time, it is emphasized that the state is the central link of the political system, which establishes the "rules of the game" for all political forces and acts as a factor that integrates the elements of the political system into a single whole.

It seems, however, that such a construction as a "political system" in many respects requires revision. It was convenient for Soviet political thinking, when all political institutions had to be in one harness, revolve around one political "core".

The balance of political forces, their balance and interaction, existing in a free, democratic society, is a special system. In any case, this is not the political system as it was presented in Soviet state studies and totalitarian political thinking. From the point of view of modern ideas, along with the state, one should take into account the integrating role of civil society, its decisive influence on the state. But political parties are one of the institutions of civil society.

At the same time, unlike parties, the state expresses the interests of society as a whole, is the official representative of the entire people. In this regard, the state has only its inherent capabilities and attributes - "levers" of political power, for the possession of which political parties are fighting in order to ensure the implementation of their programs with the help of the mechanism of state power. The ruling political parties, that is, those that have already gained access to the mechanism of state power in one way or another, exercise power mainly through the placement of members of their parties in the most important government posts.

Sociologist Robert Michels noted that any centralized, in particular a political party, is a corporation competing with others like it.



ThypologuesI ampolitical parties.

The world of political parties is extremely diverse. Therefore, attempts to typologize the parties are rather arbitrary. However, they aim to penetrate deeply into the nature of parties and their capabilities.

The generally recognized and most successful is the classification of M. Duverger, based on differences in the structure of parties and the company of their internal life. On this basis, he singled out cadre and mass parties.

Cadre parties arose when the franchise was still limited. In a closed political space, cadre parties were a means of expressing the political interests of the ruling classes, primarily the bourgeoisie. Their activity was aimed at winning the elections. To this end, they did not strive to increase their ranks, but to unite the enterprises of the elites, which could influence the voters. The main structural element of cadre parties are committees. The committee is created on a territorial basis, and its number, as a rule, is small. It has a permanent membership of activists, renewed if necessary through co-optation and does not seek to expand its ranks. Committees are cohesive, authoritative groups with the skills work among the population. Their main purpose is to conduct and organize election campaigns. The members of the committee select candidates for elections to the authorities, study public opinion, the sympathies and interests of voters, their expectations and demands, and help the leaders in the formation of electoral programs. The activity of the committees is usually “seasonal” in nature: it sharply intensifies on the eve and during the election campaign to parliament or local authorities and fades away after its end. The committees are autonomous and loosely linked. All their activities are centered around a candidate for an elective office. Such a party is concerned about ideological issues insofar as they can help their candidates. Parties built on this principle do not have a membership system with appropriate registration and regular payment of membership fees. This gave M. Duverger reason to call such parties cadre parties.

In the organizational structure of a political party, four main elements are usually distinguished: 1) the supreme leader and the staff, who have a leading role; 2) a stable management apparatus that fulfills the instructions of party leaders and communicates with party members; 3) party members who actively participate in its activities; 4) passive members of the party and adherents to it, who have an insignificant influence on party life.

Differences in the organizational structure, conditions of acquisition and characteristics of party membership, which largely depend on the place and role of the party in society, the nature of its ties with the political and social environment, underlie the division of modern parties into personnel and mass parties, which is widespread in Western political science - a classic typology. proposed by M. Duverger. The cadre parties are distinguished by their orientation towards campaigning, a low number, fairly free membership and relative autonomy of their basic structural organizations - committees created on a territorial basis from among permanent activists, as well as relying mainly on professional politicians and representatives of the financial elite who are able to provide the parties with material support (typical examples are the two leading parties USA- democratic and republican). Mass parties, which first emerged in Europe in the spread of universal suffrage, can unite in their ranks up to several hundred thousand people on the basis of a fixed membership, have a fairly rigid structure and are characterized by strict internal discipline, which implies the implementation of decisions of higher bodies, congresses and conferences not only lower party organizations and rank-and-file members, but also parliamentarians elected on behalf of the party and with its support (workers, social democratic and socialist parties were originally based on such principles; subsequently, a similar organizational structure with an increased emphasis on centralism in leadership and subordination of the minority to the majority began to be used by the communist parties, and in a "softer" form - by some bourgeois and less ideologized "electoral-mass" or "electoral" parties that appeared several decades ago, which are often called "all poisonous ”).

There are other approaches to the typology of political parties. Thus, by the nature of participation in the exercise of state power, the ruling and opposition parties are distinguished; the latter, depending on their place in the political system, are subdivided into legal, semi-legal and illegal. According to the method of communication with the parliamentary faction, “tough” and “flexible” parties are distinguished: in the first case, when making important political decisions, the deputies must vote in strict accordance with the position developed by the party leadership or congress (for example, the Labor and Conservative parties of England); on the contrary, the "flexibility" inherent, in particular, of both leading parties USA, means that congressmen or senators perceive the point of view of the leading party bodies only as a “recommendation”, vote more freely, and as a result, sharp contradictions may arise between the president and members of Congress from the same party.

Depending on the ideological and political orientation in the conventional system of coordinates “left-right”, there are “from left to right” communist, socialist and social-democratic, liberal-democratic, conservative, neo-conservative and right-wing radical (including fascist) parties.

By interacting in the struggle for the conquest of power or participating in its implementation, political parties form a party system that reflects the specifics of the position of each party in the state and civil structure of society, as well as the peculiarities of the inter-party competition in the course of the struggle for the conquest of power or participation in its implementation. R.-J. Schwarzenberg showed that in Western countries the actual level of inter-party competition is largely predetermined by the electoral system established in society: a proportional electoral system often leads to the emergence of a “full multiparty system” - the emergence of five or more parties with approximately the same degree of political influence; the introduction of an “electoral barrier”, when parties applying for parliamentary representation must gain a certain minimum of votes from the total number of voters, contributes to the gradual formation of a “moderate multi-party system” represented by 3-4 influential political forces; the majority system in two rounds of voting leads to the formation of a two-bloc system (“imperfect two-party system”), the majority system with voting in one round leads to the formation of stable two-party systems. countries the nature of party systems is largely influenced by historical and national cultures

factors: a majoritarian electoral system often leads to the fact that the elections for a long time, and with a permanent great advantage, the same party wins, thus gaining the opportunity to practically single-handedly form stable government bodies. The main reasons why other political forces cannot really compete with such a “dominant” party are the lack of the required number of generally recognized leaders, the presence of stable conservative traditions in society, the small number and a large number of parties that do not have sufficient experience in democratic struggle for power.

In recent years, a number of foreign researchers have recorded a decline in the role of political parties: countries The West - against the background of the intensification of social and political movements of a non-partisan type, in developing countries - against the background of tendencies towards a broad etatization of parties.








Ideal batch types.

elite parties

popular / mass parties

ethnically oriented parties

electoral associations of enterprises

parties of certain movements.

Each of these types also has further ramifications: for example, electoral trusts are divided into individual parties, majority parties, program associations of enterprises.

A key role in this respect was played by Maurice Duverger, who distinguished two types of parties: "cadre" and "mass". The flourishing of "cadre parties", or, as they are also called, "parties of the elites" - the XIX century, when the power of the people was still developing, and the right to vote was limited. Such parties most often represented the interests of the ruling classes.

In the first half of the 20th century, along with the introduction of universal suffrage, "mass" parties came to the fore. These parties are already oriented towards wider strata. They are numerous, united, have a clear ideology, and are headed by a centralized hierarchical organizational structure. The future, as Duverger believed, was precisely in the mass parties.

The next stage of evolution / degradation was noticed by Otto Kirkheimer. In the 1950s-1960s, based on the material of German realities, he formulated the thesis of "all-encompassing" parties. Mass parties striving to get as many votes as possible "can no longer stand on a unique ideological platform, they have to become" inclusive ", that is, sacrifice ideology in the name of electoral support.

However, the same Kirkheimer noticed another decisive trend: the "all-encompassing" parties began to gradually merge with the state. This trend was conceptualized in 1995 by Richard Katz and Peter Meir as the theory of "cartel parties" that they have observed since the 1970s. The "cartel" party is a new stage in the evolution / degradation of parties. They are increasingly moving away from voters, they are beginning to be interested not in the conduct of this or that policy, but in the very fact of being in power. Moreover, they become dependent on government subsidies. Large parties merge with each other to form a cartel that seeks to hold on to power and drive out competitors.

Not all researchers share this four-part scheme of evolution from elite parties to cartel parties through mass and inclusive parties. Other concepts that claim to describe the current situation are also being put forward. However, almost all researchers agree on one thing: we are witnessing a rapid emasculation popular rule accompanied by the erosion of representative institutions.

If we take into account this, then it is easy to assume the emergence of a new phenomenon in the near future: we will risk calling it "the party of the whole people." It will be a party that combines elements of the "all-embracing", "cartel" and other models. Such a party will aim to capture the entire electorate by transforming the class and ideological contradictions existing in society that trigger party competition into factional differences. These disagreements will henceforth not be resolved in process public policy, but through an elite dialogue. The well-known Russian political scientist Vitaly Ivanov in his study of the history of the United Russian Federation, following Yuri Pivovarov, calls such an elite association of enterprises "power plasma", inside which conflicts must "flow, resolve and extinguish" capable of "destroying the regime and the system outside."

However, not everything is so simple: the "parties of all the people", which include the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, the Indian National, almost always fail to achieve their goal. After all, no largest, loosest association of enterprises is capable of including all political identities, reflecting the interests and values ​​of all segments of the population at once. Any one rebellious, rebellious radical identity inevitably falls out. Islamists in Arab countries, Hindu fundamentalists in India, Lenin's heirs and Gaidar's radical followers in the Russian Federation. The most curious thing is that at some point it is this rebellious identity that may turn out to be the most in demand, the most acceptable for the entire society, simply because of its specialness and fundamental intransigence.

Thus, the bureaucratization of party life threatens to turn into its paradoxical radicalization. However, this conclusion is still no more than our, very likely, hasty assumption.








Non-party, one-party, two-party and multi-party governments.

In a non-partisan system, either there are no officially registered political parties, or law prohibits the appearance of the latter. In non-partisan elections, each candidate speaks for himself and thus is a bright and independent politician. A historical example of such a system is the administration of George Washington and the very first convocations of the US Congress.

Today there are several "non-party" states. These are, as a rule, absolute monarchies according to the form of government: Oman, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bhutan (until 2008). In these countries, there is either a direct ban on political parties (Ghana, Jordan), or there are no corresponding prerequisites for their creation (Bhutan, Oman, Kuwait). A similar situation can be under an influential head of state, when the allowed parties have a small role (Libya at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries).

In a one-party system, only one political party is officially permitted; its influence is enshrined in law and is undeniable. There is a variation of this system where there are also small parties that are legally required to recognize the leadership of the main party. Often, in such a situation, the position within the party may be more important than the position in the state apparatus. The classic example of a country with a one-party system is the USSR.

In systems with a ruling party, opposition parties are allowed; there may even be deep democratic traditions, but "alternative" parties seem to have no real chance of gaining power. An example from recent history is Russia at the beginning of the 21st century. In some cases, the ruling party can keep the country under its control for a long time by all means, including rigging election results. In the latter version, the difference with the one-party system is only of an official nature.

The bipartisan system is typical for states such as the United States and. At the same time, there are two dominant (less often they are also called ruling) parties, and conditions have developed under which one party is practically unable to obtain the necessary advantage over the other. One strong left and one strong right are also possible options. Relations in the bipartisan system were first described in detail by Maurice Duverger and are called the law Duverger.

In multiparty systems, there are several parties that have a real chance of gaining widespread popular support.

In states like Canada and Britain, there may be two strong parties and a third one that achieves sufficient success in the elections to become a real competitor to the first two. She often ranks second, but almost never officially headed the government. Support for this party can in some cases tip the scales in one direction or another on a sensitive issue (thus, the third party also has political influence).