CLASS X CH-6 POLITICAL PARTIES

CHALLENGES TO POLITICAL PARTIES
We know that how crucial political parties are for the democracy. They are the most visible face of the democracy and people blame them for whatever is wrong in the working of democracy.
This is a case of our country too. Popular dissatisfaction and criticism has focused on four problem areas in the working of political parties.
1. LACK OF INTERNAL DEMOCRACY (with in the party):
all over the world there is a tendency in the political parties towards the concentration of power in one or few leaders at the top.
--parties do not keep membership registers, do not hold organizational meetings and conduct internal elections regularly.
--ordinary members do not get sufficient information on what happens inside the party.
--leaders assume greater power to make decisions in the name of party.
--more than loyalty to the party principles and policies, personal loyalty to the leader becomes more important.
2. DYNASTIC SUCCESSION:
since most of the parties do not practice open and transparent procedures, there are very few ways for the ordinary worker to rise to the top in the party. As those in the position favour people who are close to them.
--in many parties top positions are always controlled by members of one family. This is unfair to the others and bad for democracy, since people with not much experience or popular support come to occupy positions of power.
3. GROWING ROLE OF MONEY AND MUSCLES.(in parties during elections)
--since parties are focused only on winning elections, they tend to use short-cuts to win elections.
--they tend to nominate candidates, who have or can raise money. Rich people and companies who give funds to the parties tend to have influence on the policy decisions of the parties.
--in some cases parties support criminals who can win elections.
4. PARTIES DO NOT OFFER MEANINGFUL CHOICE:(NO MEANINGFUL CHOICE TO THE VOTERS)
In order to offer meaningful choice parties should be different, but in the recent years there is decline in the ideological differences among parties in most parts of the world.
--as in our country differences among all major political parties on economic policies have reduced. And also in Britain, the difference between the Labour Party and the Conservative Party is very little.
--sometimes people can not even elect very different leaders either, because the same set of leaders keeps shifting from one party to another.

Q. HOW CAN PARTIES BE REFORMED?
Some of the recent efforts and suggestions in our country to reform political parties and its leaders.
1. The constitution was amended to prevent elected MLA's and MP's from changing parties. This was done because many of them were indulging in Defections, in order to become ministers for cash rewards.
--now the laws say that if any MLA or MP changes parties, he or she will lose seat in the legislature. The new law has brought defection down and has made dissent even more difficult. Now MLA's MP's have to accept whatever party leaders say.
DEFECTION--changing party allegience from the party on which a person got elected to a different party.
2. The Supreme Court passed an order to reduce the influence of money and criminals.
--now it is made mandatory for every candidate who conducts 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.
AFFIDAVIT: a signed document submitted to the officer, where a person makes a sworn statement regarding her personal information.
3. The election commission passed an order making it necessary for the political parties to hold their elections and file their income tax returns.
--though parties have started doing so but it is a mere formality.

Many suggestions have been made to reform political parties as,
1. A law should be made regulate the internal affairs of political parties.
–it should be made compulsory for political parties to maintain a register of its members, to follow its own constitution, to have an independent authority ,to act as a judge in case of disputes, to hold open elections in case of disputes.
2. It should be made mandatory for the political parties to give a minimum number of tickets, one-third, to women candidates. Similarly there should be a quota for women in the decision making bodies.
3. There should be state funding of elections. The govt. should give parties money to support their elections expenses such as petrol, paper, telephone etc. or it could be given in cash on the basis of votes secured by a party in the last elections.
4. People can put pressure on political parties and this can be done through petitions, publicity and agitations. Ordinary citizens, pressure groups and movements & media can play an important role in this. If political parties feel that will loose public support by not taking up reforms they will become more serious about reforms.
5. Political parties can improve if those who want this join politics. As the quality of democracy depends upon the degree of participation. It is difficult to reform politics if ordinary citizens do not take part in politics & simply criticize it from outside.
These suggestions have not yet been accepted by all political parties but if accepted can lead to improvement.
But over regulation of political parties can be counter productive and this would force all the parties to find ways to cheat the laws, besides political parties would not like to pass the law they do not like.

NATIONAL PARTIES/REGIONAL PARTIES
At present there are more than 750 political parties registered with the election commission in India.
Democracies that follow a federal system all over the world have two kinds of political parties.,
Parties that are present in only one of the federal units and the ones that are present in several units of the federations. This happens in India as well.

NATIONAL PARTIES;-those parties which are country-wide parties are called National parties.
--these parties have their units in various states.
--by and large they follow uniform policies, programmes & strategy that is decided at the national level.
--Election Commission declares those parties as national parties which have got 6% of the total votes and have at least won 4 seats in the Lok Sabha.
--Election Commission offers some special facilities to large and established parties. These parties are given a unique symbol and only the official candidates of that party can use that election symbol.
--parties that get this privilege and some other special facilities are called Recognised Political Parties.
--according to this classification in India we have six national parties.
REGIONAL PARTIES:-
Aparty that secures at least 6% of the total votes in the in an election to the Legislative Assembly of a state and wins atleast 2 seats is recognized as a regional party/state party.
--some of these are all India parties that happen to have succeeded only in some states.
--parties like this are Samajwadi Party, Samta Party and Rastriya JantaDal have national level political organization with units in several states.
--some of the partie like Biju Janta Dal,Sikkim Democratic Front & Mizo National Front are conscious about their state identity.

CLASS X POL.SC.CHAPTER 1 POWER SHARING

Chapter 1 Power Sharing

Q.  What is Power Sharing?

Ans.  1. Power sharing is a strategy under which all the major segments of the society are provided with a permanent share of power in the governance of the country.

2. It is a potential tool for solving disputes in the society divided by deep ethnic, cultural or racial differences by giving the parties involved the wide range of power sharing to ameliorate the tensions through consensus-oriented governance.

3. It involves a wide range of political arrangements –in constitutional terms – in which the principal elements of society are guaranteed a place and influence, in governance. It relies on joint exercise of power where all principal groups are given a permanent share in the governance.

Q. Explain the ethnic composition of Belgium.

Ans. Belgium is a small country in Europe sharing its borders with France, Germany and. It has a population a little over 10 million and ethnic composition of the country is complex. is very complex because in that country Dutch speaking people are in majority (59 %), while French speaking are 40% and German speaking 1%.The French live in the Wallonia region and the Dutch live in Flemish region. While this is the case in the country, the capital, Brussels has French speaking people as the majority (80%) and Dutch speaking 20%.

Q.What were the Causes of ethnic struggle in Belgium?

Ans.  1. Of Belgium’s total population, 59% live in Flemish region and speak  Dutch language. Another 40% live in Wallonia region and speak French. Remaining 1% of Belgians speak German.

2. In the capital city of Brussels, 80% speak French while 20% are Dutch speaking.

3. The minority French speaking community is relatively rich and powerful so the majority Dutch community showed resentment against it. This led to tension between the Dutch and French speaking communities in 1950s-1960s. 4. The conflict between the Dutch speaking and French speaking was more severe in Brussels because here, the Dutch speaking people were majority in Belgium but a minority in Brussels. Therefore, the ethnic struggle in Belgium originated from tensions between Dutch and French community in Belgium.

Q. What were the methods adopted by the Belgian leaders to resolve the ethnic conflict in Belgium? (Features of the Belgian Model of Power Sharing-Accommodation)

Ans. Elements/Features of Belgian Model of Power Sharing:

Accommodation (Mutually acceptable arrangement)

1. The Belgian leaders recognized the existence of regional difference and cultural diversities. Between 1970-1993, the constitution was amended 4 times so as to work out an arrangement which would satisfy everybody.

2.The CONSTITUTION saysthat:
a)Dutch and French speaking ministers shall be equal in central government. Special laws will require support of majority of members from each group.
b) Many powers of the central govt. have been given to the state govt. of two regions and state govt.s are not subordinate to the central govt.
c).In Brussels both communities have equal representation.
d). Formation of community govt.-apart from central and state govt., a third form of govt. was to be introduced which was elected by people belonging to one community i.e. Dutch, French and German and no matter where they live, this govt. would have power to discuss cultural , cultural and language related issues.

These arrangements have worked very well for Belgium so far, as it has helped in avoiding civic tensions between the communities.
and also avoided possible division of the country on linguistic lines.
When EUROPEAN UNION was formed Brussels was chosen as its headquarters.

Q. Explain the ethnic Composition in Sri Lanka.
Ans.1.Srilanka an Island nation in the south of India.
2.Tamil Natives-  Srilankan Tamils-13% ; Rest-Whose forefathers had come from India as plantation workers-'Indian Tamils'
3.Sinhalese-Buddhist,74%, formed the majority govt. after independence in 1948.
4.Tamils-Hindus-Muslims, 7% are Christians who are both Tamil & Sinhalese.
5.Sinhalese enjoyed majority and can impose its will on the entire country.

Q. Explain the Power Sharing Arrangement of Sri Lanka (Majoritarianism):

Majoritarianism (Definition in Glossary)

Ans. Measures adopted by the democratically elected Sri Lankan govt. to establish Sinhala supremacy:

Sri Lanka attained independence in 1948.
Leaders of Sinhala community tried to dominate and took some ‘Majoritarian measures to establish Sinhala supremacy.

In 1956-An Act was passed which contained three majoritarian measures.

1.It declared Sinhala as the official language thus replacing Tamil.
2. Preferential policy-favouring Sinhala applicants for university positions and government jobs.
3. The Constitution stipulated that the State shall protect and foster Buddhism, the religion of the Sinhala people.
These measures created feeling of alienation among Srilankan Tamils. They felt that these policies denied them equal political rights and opportunities.
Reactions of the Tamils(Relations were strained)
Srilankan Tamils launched parties and struggles and demanded—
a)recognition of Tamil as an official language
b)regional autonomy
c)equality of opportunity in education and jobs.

Though all these demands were denied.
In 1980’s several political organizations started demanding separate state—TAMIL EELAM
Distrust developed and CIVILWAR started……….

Its results:
Thousands of people got killed
Many families were forced to leave the country as refugees.
Many more lost their livelihood.
Excellent record of Srilanka’s economic development, education and health received a
terrible setback.

Q. Why power sharing is desirable?

Ans. Prudential and Moral reasons:
a).Prudential reasons for power sharing:

1.     It helps to reduce the possibility of conflict between the various social groups.

2.     Since social conflict often leads to violence and political instability, power sharing is a good way to ensure political stability.

3.     Imposing the will of the majority community over the minority may look like an attractive option in the short run, but in the long run it undermines the unity of the nation.

4.     Tyranny of the majority is not just oppressive for the minority, it often brings ruin to the majority as well.

b) Moral Reasons for power sharing:

      1. Power sharing is the very spirit of democracy. It involves sharing power     

        with those who are affected by its exercise.

    2. People have right to be consulted on how they are to be governed.

    3. A legitimate govt. is the one where citizens through participation acquire  

       a stake in the system.

   4.Moral reasons emphasize the very act of power sharing as valuable.

Forms of power sharing:

For a long time it was believed that all power of govt. should reside in one person or group of persons located at one place. It was believed that if power was dispersed it would not be possible to take decisions and to enforce them. But these notions changed with the emergence of democracy.
In Democracy people are source of all powers and due respect is given to diverse groups, everyone has a voice in shaping of public policies and therefore political power is distributed among as many citizens as possible.

In modern democracies power sharing arrangements are done in many forms.
1. Power is shared among different organs of govt.(Separation of powers)
such as with legislature, judiciary, executive. This is called horizontal distribution of power as it allows different organs of govt placed at same levels to exercise different powers. Such a separation ensures that none of the organs exercise unlimited powers. Each organ checks the other, which results in balance of power among various institutions.
This system is called system of checks and balances

...Examples
As in India even though ministers and govt. officials exercise power they are responsible to the Parliament or to the state Assemblies.
Although the judges are appointed by the executive they can check the execution of laws made by legislature.

2.power shared among governments at different levels.(Federalism)
a) A general govt. for the entire country is usually called Federal government, and in India we call it Central or Union govt.

b) Governments at the provincial or state level--these govts are known by different names in different countries and in India we call them State govts.
It is not found in all countries but in country like ours Constitution clearly lays down the powers of different levels of government. This is called federal distribution of power and the same principle is extended to the levels lower than state govts such as municipality and panchayats. This is called vertical sharing of power.

3. Power shared among different communities and social groups (Community government)

Social groups such as religious and linguistic groups. ‘Community govt. in Belgium is an example of this arrangement.

a) In some countries there are constitutional and legal arrangements where weaker sections and women are represented in the legislatures and administration.

b) Reserved constituencies are there, as in India. This type of arrangement gives space in the govt and administration to diverse social groups who otherwise feel alienated from the govt. It gives minorities fair share of power.

4. Power sharing among political parties and  pressure groups(Coalition government)

These parties, pressure groups and movements control or influence those in power.
a) In contemporary democracies there is competition among different parties which ensures that power does not remain in one hand. Sometimes this type of sharing is direct when two or more parties form an alliance or ‘front’ to contest elections and if no party wins to form the govt single handedly then the alliance forms the govt. (coalition govt) and thus share power.
b) In democracy we have interest groups (pressure groups) as of traders, businessman, farmers, industrialists, workers. They also have share in governmental power either through participation in governmental committees or brining influence on decision making process.