Particracy, also known as partitocracy, partitocrazia or partocracy, is a form of government in which the political parties are the primary basis of rule[1] rather than citizens or individual politicians.
The educational function noted in Article 21 (participation in the "forming of the political will") suggests that parties should help define public opinion rather than simply carry out the wishes of the electorate.
In the West, the United States, in which the Democratic and the Republican parties have been in power continuously since before the American Civil War, could be viewed as a particracy or, as in Safire definition, as a political machine.
In South Africa, the African National Congress has been the ruling party ever since the first free and fair elections in 1994, despite several high profile controversies over the years.
[5] Japan's Liberal Democratic Party is often cited as another political machine, maintaining power in suburban and rural areas through its control of farm bureaus and road construction agencies.
[8] Japanese political factional leaders are expected to distribute mochidai, literally snack-money, meaning funds to help subordinates win elections.
Supporters ignore wrongdoing to collect the benefits from the benefactor, such as money payments distributed by politicians to voters in weddings, funerals, New year parties among other events.
This can be used by parties to guarantee virtual re-election to unpopular but powerful figures, who would be weaker in a first-past-the-post electoral system[citation needed].
The nearly pure proportional representation system of the First Republic had resulted not only in political fragmentation and therefore governmental instability, but also insulation of the parties from the electorate and civil society.
Emboldened by their victory in 1991 and encouraged by the unfolding Mani pulite scandals and the substantial loss of votes for the traditional parties in the 1992 general elections, the reformers pushed forward with another referendum, abrogating the proportional representation system of the Italian Senate and implicitly supporting a plurality system that would theoretically force parties to coalesce around two ideological poles, thereby providing governmental stability[citation needed].