Political party

Political parties in different countries will often adopt similar colors and symbols to identify themselves with a particular ideology.

[5] This is related to other features that sometimes distinguish parties from other political organizations, including a larger membership, greater stability over time, and a deeper connection to the electorate.

[13]: 4  The Whig faction originally organized itself around support for Protestant constitutional monarchy as opposed to absolute rule, whereas the conservative Tory faction (originally the Royalist or Cavalier faction of the English Civil War) supported a strong monarchy, and these two groups structured disputes in the politics of the United Kingdom throughout the 18th century[13]: 4 [14] The Rockingham Whigs have been identified as the first modern political party, because they retained a coherent party label and motivating principles even while out of power.

[9] In many European countries, including Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and France, political parties organized around a liberal-conservative divide, or around religious disputes.

[18] The strength of political parties in the United States waned during the Era of Good Feelings, but shifted and strengthened again by the second half of the 19th century.

[12]: 511 During the wave of decolonization in the mid-20th century, many newly sovereign countries outside of Europe and North America developed party systems that often emerged from their movements for independence.

[22][23] For example, a system of political parties arose out of factions in the Indian independence movement, and was strengthened and stabilized by the policies of Indira Gandhi in the 1970s.

[2]: 165  The formation of the Indian National Congress, which developed in the late 19th century as a pro-independence faction in British India and immediately became a major political party after Indian independence, foreshadowed the dynamic in many newly independent countries; for example, the Uganda National Congress was a pro-independence party and the first political party in Uganda, and its name was chosen as an homage to the Indian National Congress.

[1] Thus, political parties can be mechanisms for preventing candidates with similar goals from acting to each other's detriment when campaigning or governing.

[40][41] Another prominent explanation for why political parties exist is psychological: parties may be necessary for many individuals to participate in politics because they provide a massively simplifying heuristic, which allows people to make informed choices with much less mental effort than if voters had to consciously evaluate the merits of every candidate individually.

[53] Autocratic parties use more restrictive selection methods to avoid having major shifts in the regime as a result of successions.

[62] Since at least the 1980s, membership in large traditional party organizations has been steadily declining across a number of countries, particularly longstanding European democracies.

The French political scientist Maurice Duverger first distinguished between elite and "mass" parties, founding his distinction on the differences within the organisational structures of these two types.

[71] By broadening their central ideologies into more open-ended ones, catch-all parties seek to secure the support of a wider section of the population.

[83] Common ideologies that can form a central part of the identity of a political party include liberalism, conservatism, socialism, communism, anarchism, fascism, feminism, environmentalism, nationalism, fundamentalism,[84] Islamism, and multiculturalism.

[86] Socialist, communist, feminist, anarchist, fascist, and nationalist parties are more recent developments, largely entering political competitions only in the 19th and 20th centuries.

For example, some political parties may be clientelistic or patronage-based organizations, which are largely concerned with distributing goods.

[92] This may involve a non-ideological attachment to the interests of that group, or may be a commitment based on an ideology like identity politics.

For example, the United States began as a non-partisan democracy, and it evolved a stable system of political parties over the course of many decades.

[110] Other examples of countries which have had long periods of two-party dominance include Colombia, Uruguay,[111] Malta,[112] and Ghana.

Competition between two parties has occurred in historical autocratic regimes in countries including Brazil[114] and Venezuela.

For example, some commentators argue that political institutions in prominent two-party systems like the United States have been specifically designed to ensure that no third party can become competitive.

[118] Criticisms also center around these systems' tendencies to encourage insincere voting and to facilitate the spoiler effect.[119]: ch.

[121] Many of the largest democracies in the world have had long periods of multi-party competition, including India,[122] Indonesia,[123] Pakistan,[124] and Brazil.

[128] For this reason, in two-party democracies like the United States, proponents of forming new competitive political parties often argue that developing a multi-party system would make the country more democratic.

[132][133] In the opposite extreme, a country with a very large number of parties can experience governing coalitions that include highly ideologically diverse parties that are unable to make much policy progress, which may cause the country to be unstable and experience a very large number of elections; examples of systems that have been described as having these problems include periods in the recent history of Israel,[134] Italy, and Finland.

[147] Internal funding may be preferred because external sources might make the party beholden to an outside entity.

Parties often spend money to train activists, recruit volunteers, create and deploy advertisements, conduct research and support for their leadership in between elections, and promote their policy agenda.

[149] Though it may be crucial for a party to spend more than some threshold to win a given election, there are typically diminishing returns for expenses during a campaign.

[152] Two main ways in which regulations affect parties are by intervening in their sources of income and by mandating that they maintain some level of transparency about their funding.

The members of political parties, such as those of the Indian National Congress (INC)( pictured ), coordinate to collectively achieve and use political power.
In A Block for the Wigs (1783), James Gillray caricatured Fox's return to power in a coalition with North. George III is the blockhead in the centre.
Political parties like the Romanian Communist Party can arise out of, or be closely connected to, existing segments of society, such as organizations of workers.
It is easier for voters to evaluate one simple list of policies for each party, like this platform for the United Australia Party , than to individually judge every single candidate.
A National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party , where policies may be set and changes can be made to party leadership
Members of the National Woman's Party in 1918
Parties can arise from existing cleavages in society, like the Social Democratic Party of Germany which was formed to represent German workers.
In a non-partisan legislature, like the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories , every member runs and legislates as a political independent with no party affiliation.
On this 2012 Mexican ballot, voters have more than two parties to choose from.
Campaign finance restrictions may be motivated by the perception that excessive or secretive contributions to political parties will make them beholden to people other than the voters.