Ans) Political parties perform various functions in a democracy, which are as follows:-

1. Candidates are brought forward by parties to contest elections. These candidates are chosen either by the members of the party or by the party leaders.
2. Parties put forward different policies and programmes and the voters choose from them.
3. Parties make a decisive role in making laws for a country. Laws are debated and passed in the legislature.
4. Parties form and run governments. They recruit leaders and train them to be ministers to run the government in the way they want.
5. Parties that lose the election form the opposition party. The opposition voices different views and criticize the failures of the government.
6. Parties shape public opinion. They have lakhs of members all over the country and they play a great role in influencing the way people think.
7. Parties provide the common access to government machinery and welfare schemes. It is easy for a person to meet a local party leader than a government official.

Ans) Political parties are a necessary condition for democracy as clearly stated:-

1. If there are no political parties, every candidate in the elections will be independent so no one will be able to make any promises to the people about any major policy changes. The government may be formed, but its utility will remain ever uncertain.
2. Elected representatives will be accountable to their constituency for what they do in the locality but no one will be responsible for how the country will be run.
3. Although the parties do not contest formally, it is generally noticed that the village gets split into more than one fraction, each of which puts up a ‘panel’ of its candidates. This is exactly what the political party does.
4. The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative democracies, large societies need representative democracy. As societies became large and complex, they also needed some agency to gather different views on various issues and to present these to the government.
5. They needed to bring various representatives together so that a responsible government could be formed. They needed a mechanism to support or restrain the government, make policies, justify or oppose them. Political parties fulfill these needs that every representative government has. Thus we can say that parties are a necessary condition for a democracy.

Ans) Different political parties are important for parliamentary democracy. 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 programmes for the society with a view to promote the collective good.

Importance of party system – Party system make the democratic governance possible. In modern era, the function of governance is in collaboration with the political parties. They help in forming the policies and with their help it is easy to bring change in policies. Due to the effect of party system, the government is people-oriented and works in the public interest. The political party controls the autocracy of governance. Through these parties the hopes and expectations of the public reach the government. It gives political training to the public. Through them, people get the opportunity to participate in governance. Political parties are the protector of civil liberties. The unity of the nation is established by them. Lord Bryce is of the opinion that “Party keeps the mind of the nation functioning in the same way, as the water of the bay of the sea remains clean due to the movement of the waves.”

Ans) Types of party system – As per the numbers of the political parties, party system is divided into three groups:-

1. One-party system – One party system is where there is only one political party and only this party is allowed to control and run the government. Ex. Communist Party in China. It is ban to keep political views there.
2. Two-party system – In this system, there are two main parties. In USA there is two-party system. The two main parties-Democratic party and Republican party. USA and UK are examples of two-party system.
3. Multi-party system – In this system, there are many political parties, but all the parties are not on the same level. In India we have multi-party system. In Election, it is not important for any one party to come in majority.

When any one party lacks to win by majority, then alliance of parties is formed. In Alliance or Front Government, two or more parties are involved. The major flaw of multi-party system is defection. Many problems arise during election time. Multi-party system often appears messy and leads to political instability. This system allows a variety of interests and opinions to enjoy political representation.

Ans) Some suggestions to reform political parties are as follows:-

1. The constitution was amended to prevent elected MLAS and MPs from changing parties. This was done because many elected representatives were indulging in defection in order to become ministers or for cash rewards. Now the law says that if any MLA or MP changes parties, he or she will lose the seat in the legislature. This new law has helped bring defection down. At the same time this has made any dissent even more difficult, MPs and MLAs have to accept whatever the party leaders decide.
2. Political parties should not be formed on the basis of caste, language or region, they should be formed purely on political and economical principles. By doing this, work can be done by the political parties to generate unity and awaken public opinion among the citizens of states.
3. The supreme court passed an order to reduce the influence of money and criminals. 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.
4. There should be state funding of elections. The government should give parties money to support their election expenses. This support could be given in kind petrol, paper, telephone etc. or it could be given in cash on the basis of the votes secured by the party in the last election.
5. People can put pressure on political parties. This can be done through petitions, publicity and agitations. Ordinary citizens, pressure groups, movements and the media can play on important role in this. If the political parties feel that they would lose public support by not taking up reforms, they would become more serious about reforms. Political parties can improve if those who want this, join political parties. The quality of democracy depends on the degree of public participation. It is difficult to reform politics if ordinary citizens do not take part in it and simply criticise it form the outside. The problem of bad politics can be solved by more and better politics.

Ans) The opposition party functions in an effective manner and their work is no
less important than that of the ruling party:-

1. It checks the government from becoming authoritarian and to restrict its powers, the opposition parties keep a watch over them.
2. The opposition parties have the right to check the expenditure of the government.
3. The main duty of the opposition party is to criticize the policies of the government.
4. Outside the legislature the opposition parties attract the attention of the press and report their criticism of the government policy in the newspapers.
5. During the question hour, the opposition parties criticize the government generally.

Ans) It was founded in 1980 by reviving the erstwhile Bhartiya Jana Sangh, formed by Syama Prasad Mukherjee in 1951. Party wanted to build a strong and modern India by drawing inspiration from India’s ancient culture and values and Deendayal Upadhyaya’s ideas of integral humanism and Antyodaya.

Party wants full territorial and political integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India, a uniform civil code for all people living in the country irrespective of religion, and ban on religious conversions. Its support base increased substantially in the 1990s. Earlier limited to north and west and to urban areas, the party expanded its support in the south, east, the northeast and to rural areas. Party came to power in 1998 as the leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) including several regional parties. It emerged as the largest party with 303 members in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Currently B.J.P. led NDA government is ruling at the centre.

Ans) It is popularly known as the Congress party and it is one of the oldest parties of the world. It was founded in 1885 and has experienced many splits. It played a dominant role in Indian politics at the national and state level for several decades after Independence. Under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, the party sought to build a modern secular democratic republic in India.

It was the ruling party at the centre till 1977 and then from 1980 to 1989. After 1989, its support declined but it continues to be present throughout the country, cutting across social divisions. A centrist party (neither rightist nore leftist) in its ideological orientation, the party espouses secularism and welfare of weaker sections and minorities. It supports new economic reforms but with a human face. t was the leader of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government from 2004 to 2014. In 2014 and 2019, this party lost in Lok Sabha election. In 2019, it grabbed 52 seats in Lok Sabha elections.

Ans) The main challenges faced by political parties are as follows:-

1. Lack of internal democracy – First challenge is lack of internal democracy within parties. All over the world there is a tendency in political parties towards the concentration of power in one or few leaders at the top. Parties do not keep membership registers, do not hold organisational meetings and do not conduct internal elections regularly. Ordinary members of the party do not get sufficient information on what happens inside the party. As a result the leaders assume greater power to make decisions in the name of the party. Since one or few leaders exercise paramount power in the party, those who disagree with the leadership find it difficult to continue in the party. More than loyalty to party principles and policies personal loyalty to the leader becomes more important.
2. Dynastic succession – This challenge of dynastic succession is related to first one. Since most political parties do not practice open and transparent procedures for their functioning, there are very few ways for an ordinary worker to rise to the top in a party. Those who happen to be the leaders are in a position of unfair advantage to favour people close to them or even their family members. In many parties, the top positions are always controlled by members of one family. This is unfair to other members of that party. This is bad for democracy also, since people who do not have adequate experience or popular support come to occupy positions of power. This tendency is present in some measure all over the world, including in some of the older democracies.
3. Money and muscle power – The third challenge is about the growing role of money and muscle power in parties, especially during elections. Since parties are focussed only on winning elections, they tend to use shortcuts to win elections. They tend to nominate those candidates who have or can raise lots of money. Rich people and companies who give funds to the parties tend to have influence on the policies and decisions of the party. In some cases, parties support criminals who can win elections. Democrats all over the world are worried about the increasing role of rich people and big companies in democratic politics.
4. Decline of meaningful choices – The fourth challenge is that very often parties do not seem to offer a meaningful choice to the voters. In order to offer meaningful choice, parties must be significantly different. In recent years, there has been a decline in the ideological differences among parties in most parts of the world. For example, the difference among all the major parties on the economic policies have reduced. Those who really want different policies have no option available to them. Sometimes people cannot even elect very different leaders either, because the same set of leaders keep shifting from one party to another.