LACK OF INTERNAL DEMOCRACY, DYNASTIC SUCCESSION

LACK OF INTERNAL DEMOCRACY, DYNASTIC SUCCESSION

Challenge to political parties

We have seen how crucial political parties are for the working of democracy. Since parties are the most visible face of democracy, it is natural that people blame parties for whatever is wrong with the working of democracy. All over the world, people express strong dissatisfaction with the failure of political parties to perform their functions well. This is the case in our country too. Popular dissatisfaction and criticism has focussed on four problem areas in the working of political parties. Political parties need to face and overcome these challenges in order to remain effective instruments of democracy.

i.  Lack of internal democracy within parties

ii.  Dynastic succession

iii. The growing role of money and muscle power in parties

iv. Meaningful choice to the voters

Lack of internal democracy within parties

The first challenge is the 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 a 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. They do not have the means or the connections needed to influence the decisions. As a result, the leaders assume greater power to make decisions in the name of the party. Since one or a 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.

Berlusconi Puppet Theatre.

(Berlusconi was the Prime Minister of Italy. He is also one of the top businessmen in Italy. He is the leader of the Forza Italia founded in 1993. His company owns TV channels, the most important publishing company, a football club (AC Milan) and a bank. This cartoon was made during the last elections.)

Dynastic succession

The second challenge of dynastic succession is related to the 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 also bad for democracy 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.

This cartoon was drawn during the Presidency of George Bush of the Republican Party in the USA. The party’s symbol is the elephant. The cartoon seems to suggest that Corporate America controls all major institutions of the country.

Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK

MONEY AND MUSCLE POWER, MEANINGFUL CHOICE

MONEY AND MUSCLE POWER, MEANINGFUL CHOICE

Money and muscle power in parties

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 short-cuts 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 an 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.

Meaningful choice to the voters

The fourth challenge is that very often parties do not seem to offer a meaningful choice to the voters. In order to offer meaningful choices, 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 between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party in Britain is very little. They agree on more fundamental aspects but differ only in details on how policies are to be framed and implemented. In our country too, the differences among all the major parties on the economic policies have reduced. Those who want really 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.

Activity

What are the ways to curb the misuse of money and muscle power in politics?

Source: This topic is taken from NCERT TEXTBOOK