POLITICAL PARTIES AND PRESSURE GROUPS POLITICAL PARTIES - WEEK FOUR

POLITICAL PARTIES AND PRESSURE GROUPS

POLITICAL PARTIES

Specific Objectives:

At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:

1. Define political parties.
2. Discuss their organization and functions.
3. Identify different types of political parties.

DEFINITION

Political parties can be referred to as individuals with similar opinions or interest who aim at political power or control of the government. It can also be defined as an association of people of like mind who organize themselves for the purpose of controlling governmental power of a state. E.g's People Democratic Party (PDP), AH Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

ORGANIZATION OF POLITICAL PARTIES

The organization of political parties consists of.

1. Board of Governors: These are the king makers, the power brokers who deci-le very serious and important matters. They are the owners or foundation members of the party.
2. National Executives: This is the body that makes the final decisions concerning the party. Us executives are very strong members of the party. It is made up of the chairman, deputy and other national officers. It helps in organizing primary elections for their parties in the state, local government and wards.
3. State executives: The state executive controls the affairs of the party in their various states but take final instructions and directives from the national excusive
4. Local government executive: They also take decisions at the local level of the parties. They help in producing senators and representatives to the House of Senate and House of Representatives at the centre.
5. Ward executives: These people see to the party's activities at the ward level and they are at the grass-root level. It is from there that any party organizes its structure.

FUNCTIONS OF POLITICAL PARTIES

1. Political parties serve as links between the people and the government.
2. Political parties provide information on candidates thus encourage the electorate to be interested in theirgovernance.
3. Political parties provide opposition to the government in power.
4. The help in increasing the political participation of the populace.
5. Political parties serve as a training ground for future political leaders.
6. They help in selecting candidates for political offices during elections.
7. They sponsor candidates for elective positions.
8. They campaign and give all support to their various candidates during elections.
9. They educate the people on political issues during political rallies and campaigns.
10. They aggregate the interests and needs if the people in their manifestoes.
11. They help in spreading necessary information on government policies.
12. They provide a wide rangeof choice for electorate to choose from.
13. Political parties also sanction erring members of their parties.
14. They aspire for the promotion of the unity of the country as it should have a national spread.

TYPES OFPOLITICALPARTIES

Political parties are grouped according to their interests or manifestoes. They are:

1. Elitist political party: Is a political party meant for the bourgeoisie or people of the upper class i.e the individuals with sound intellectual background or the business moguls. The party is not meant for everybody but rather its membership is limited to the well-to-to in the society. Their major interest is to protect their interest and to acquire more private properties mostly at the detriment of the proletariats or have not in the society e.g doctors, owners of industries, lawyers, professors etc. Thus, they are conservative in outlook since they restrict their membership to only the privileged.
2. Mass parties: These parties are mainly for everybody (the masses). It includes all segments of the society from all walks of life i.e for both the rich, poor, low, illiterate, literate etc. Thus, it has grass root followership. It aims at protecting the interest of the masses. They believe that power belongs to the people and hence cuts across ethnic, religious and sectional interests.
3. Broker political parties: These are parties with a mixture of the people of lower and upper classes of the society. They cater for the interest of all in the society. They meditate between the interest of the rich and the poor in the society.
4. Charismatic or personality parties: These are parties with charismatic leaders as head. The people see these leaders as semi-god and should be followed under sun or rain. When these leaders die or are incapacitated, the parties swung into oblivion i.e a natural death e.g Odumegwu OjuKwu in APGA, Obafemi Awolowo in (UPN) Unity Party of Nigeria. They are led by or formed by an individual with unique charisma/enviable qualities, talents etc.
5. Mega Political Parties! This is party formed through an amalgamation of several splinter political parties thereby making it large/big. With the absorption of different parties into one bigparty, it grows larger and may dominate other parties in the polity.
6. Religiousparty: These arc parties that are based on religious principle and doctrines e.g Christianity, Islamic, Political parties.

HOW A POLITICAL PARTY CAN WIN ELECTIONS SUCCESSFULLY

1. Finance: If it has enough donors dues etc to finance its activities.
2. Organization: If it has a good organization by its leaders and elders or boards of the party.
3. Structure: Any party that has a good strong structure from ward to national level (mass membership) and is evenly spread through the nation can win elections successfully.
4. Manifesto: A party that possesses a good manifesto can win elections if it has a good ideology that pleases the voters.
5. Calibre and characters of candidates:  If it produces  popular candidates  with unquestionable character as their candidates, they are bound to be winning.
6. Proper political education of the masses on their manifesto and if it has a good youth wing, that is active.
7. Good policies and programmes of the party.
8. It must possess a strong party discipline.
9. It must possess powerful propaganda machinery.
10. It must give account of its stewardship to the masses from time to time.
11. Impartial electoral commission to give free and fair elections.

ADVANTAGES OF POLITICAL PARTIES

1. Aparty is made up of people of the same ideology and hence, like minds.
2. They educate the electorate and organize elections.
3. It is a plat form for political appointments like commissioners, special advisers and ambassadorial posts etc.
4. They offer solutions to country's pressing problems by their constructive criticism e.gACN criticism of justice Salam, removal by the president and the national judiciarycouncil.
5. Forum for political interaction of people of varying backgrounds
6. It serves as a training ground for future leaders..

DISADVANTAGES OF POLITICALPARTIES

1. Political parties are among the institutions that are noted for corruption in Nigeria. Many of their members are being interrogated by the Anti-craft agencies like (EFCC) Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (ICPC) Independent Corrupt PracticesCommission.
2. Political parties train thugs and even equip them with arms and ammunitions which theylater use for their selfish interest to commit crimes,
3. Party politics may lead to a state of insecurity e.g it was one of the factors to led to civil warNigeria.
4. Political parties led to personality clashes between opponents e.g (NPP) Nigeria Peoples Party Jim Nwobodo's Youth Vanguard and (NPN) National Party of Nigeria Youths.
5. Political parties can cause problems as they neglect some areas.
6. Political instability is the bane of Nigeria unity due to the activities of ethnic based political parties.
7. Political parties claim to be national in outlook, whereas they are parochial in words anddeeds.
8. Lack of independent opinion: Members of the party find it difficult to express theirindividual opinion due to party discipline.