In this post of class 10 social science political parties notes, we have discussed all important concept of chapter 4 political parties of class 10 political science that would help students to have clear understanding of political parties class 10 sst.
Political Parties Notes Class 10 SST
Political parties are the most visible institutions in a democracy and for ordinary people political parties is equal to democracy so this institution is present all the democracies of the world.
Political party
A political party is a group of people who come together to contest election and hold power in the government .
They agree on some policies and programs with a view to promote the collective good and take decisions what is good for the society and implement policies after winning elections.
Partisanship
Each party create political division in the society because every party is known by the part or the section of the society it represents and support . A single party could not represent the whole society so it is committed to a group or faction.
Components of the political parties
1. Leaders
2. Active members
3. Followers
Functions of Political Parties
1. Contest elections
Candidates that are given tickets by the political parties fought election among themselves but the criteria to select the candidate is different in different countries.
2. Policies and Programmes
Each political party put forward different policies and the programme for the voters to help them to choose the best party that can group together their opinions to provide directions to the policies of government.
3. Making laws
Laws are made in legislature by ruling party and opposition parties after debate and discussion irrespective of personal opinion.
4. Form and run governments
Party in majority form government and take all big decisions and run the government by recruiting and training leaders .
5. Role of Opposition
The party that lose elections become opposition and criticize government for its failure or wrong policies in legislature.
6. Shape public opinion
Parties have lakhs of members and activist in the society are the extension of political parties and sometimes launch movement for the resolution of the problem faced by the people.
7. Access to government machinery and welfare schemes
Ordinary people can access different benefits related to policies and programs through the leaders rather than a government officer as he feel close himself to leaders and parties.
Necessity
If each candidate is independent in election then no one will take responsibility on broad basis and no promises he could made to the people of the country about big policies and Programmes in the national interest as he is responsible only to the constituency it belongs.
How many parties should we have?
In a democracy any group of citizens is free to form a political party. There are several parties in the country but only a few parties have chance to win the election and form government.
Party system
A system in which one party,two parties or more than two parties have chances to win ,control and run the government.
Types of party system
1. One party system
When a one party is allowed to control and run the government in a country is considered one partic system. Example- China
2. Two party system
In this system there are several parties but power usually changes between two parties. Example United States of America and United Kingdom
3. Multi party system
If several parties contest election for power and more than two parties have a reasonable chance of coming to the power either on their own or in alliance with other parties. Example India
Alliance or Front
When several parties come together for the purpose of contestant elections and form the government it is called alliance or coalition or front.
Which party system is suitable?
Party system is not something any country can choose .It evolves over a long time, depending on the nature of the society, its social and regional divisions ,its history of politics and its system of elections.Each country developed a party system that is conditioned by its circumstances
India has adopted a multi party system because it has a huge social and geographical diversity which is not easily absorbed by only two or three parties .
Types of Political Parties
Democracy that follow federal system usually have two kind of parties.
National party
The party that are present in several or all the units of the federation are called political parties.These parties have their units in various states.
Conditions: A Party that secures at least 6% of the total vote in the lok Sabha elections or assembly elections in 4 States and win at least four seats in the lok Sabha is recognised as national party.
1.Indian National Congress (INC)
— One of the oldest party and founded in 1885.
—Centralist party (neither rightist nor leftist in ideological orientation) and has symbol of hand.
— Supports secularism and welfare of weaker sections and minorities and economic reforms.
— Leads the United progressive alliance (UPA)
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)
— Founded in 1980 by reviving the Bhartiya Jana Sangh.
—- Want to build a strong and modern india, territorial and political integration of Jammu and Kashmir with India and uniform Civil code by drawing inspiration from India’s ancient culture and values.
— Cultural nationalism( hindutva) is an important element in its conception of Indian nationhood and politics.
— Leads the NDA (National Democratic Alliance).
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)
–Founded in 1984 under the leadership of kanshiram.
— Stands for dalits, adivasis, OBC and religious minorities and secure power.
— Teaching of Sahu Maharaj ,Mahatma Phule ,Periyar, Ramaswami Naicker and Babasaheb Ambedkar are the ideals and inspiration.
— It’s base is in Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring States like Madhya Pradesh ,Chhattisgarh Uttarakhand Delhi and Punjab.
Communist Party of India -marxist(CPI-M)
— Founded in 1964
— Believes in Marxism, leninism and supports socialism, secularism and democracy and opposes imperialism and communalism.
— It’s base is in West Bengal ,Kerala and Tripura especially among the poor,factory workers ,farmers and agricultural labourers.
— Critical of the new economic policy policies that allows fee flow of foreign capital and goods in the country .
Communist Party of India
— Formed in 1925
— Believe in Marxism leninism secularism and democracy and opposes secessionism and communalism.
— After split in the party in 1964 led to the formation of CPI(M)
— Presence in the state of Kerala,West Bengal,Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu.
— Advocates the coming together of all left parties to build a strong left front.
Nationalist Congress Party
— Formed in 1999 after the spirit in the Congress Party.
— Supports democracy ,gandhian secularism, equity, social justice and federalism.
— Major party in Maharashtra and other states like Meghalaya ,Manipur and Assam and a member of UPA.
State parties
Those parties that have presence in one of the federal units are considered state parties.
Among them, some parties have national level political organization with units in several states.Eg-; Samajwadi party,Rastriya Janta dal etc
Conditions: A party that secures at least 6% of the total votes in an election to the legislative assembly of a state and wins at least two seats is recognised as a state party.
Recognised parties
When the election commission gives some special facilities to large and established parties like unique symbol which official candidate of the party can use to contest election.
Challenges to political parties
Political parties are the most visible face of the democracy so people expresses strong dis-satisfaction with the failure of political parties to perform their functions that is a testimonial to the working of democracy.
There are four challenges of political parties
1. Lack of internal democracy
Parties do not keep membership registers , do not hold organisational meetings and not conduct internal elections regularly so ordinary members of the party do not have any influence on the decisions and paramount power lies with one or two leaders.
2. Dynastic succession
Many parties top positions are always controlled by members of one family or in a position of unfair advantage to favour people close to them or even their family members.
3. Money and muscle power
For winning the election, parties nominate those candidates who have or can raise a lot of money or have criminal background that can help in the winning of the seats.
4. Meaningful choice to the voters
All the parties have very little differences in their policies and the party who really have different policies have no option to come in power so same set of leaders keep shifting from one party to another.
How can parties be reformed?
1.The constitution was amended to prevent elected MLA’s and MP’s from changing parties in order to become ministers or for cash rewards by anti defection law.
2.The supreme court passed an order and made it mandatory for all the candidates to file an affidavit before contesting elections which includes details of his property and criminal cases pending against him to give clear picture to the voters.
3.Election Commission passed in order to make it necessary for all political parties to hold the organisation elections and file there income tax returns.
Besides these reforms, there are some other suggestions that are made to reform parties
4. Political parties should maintain a register of its members ,to follow its own constitution ,to have an independent authority to act as a judge in case of party dispute to hold open elections the highest post.
5.State funding of the elections should be done by government in kind like petrol ,paper telephone etc.
6. It should be mandatory for political parties to give a minimum number of tickets to women candidates almost one third tickets.
First ,Political parties can be reformed by people through petitions ,publicity and agitations and second ordinary citizens pressure groups and movements and the media can help to put pressure on political parties to take reforms for coming in power.
The quality of democracy depends on the degree of public participation.