Political Parties (Question-answers) Class X CBSE BOARD

Q1. State the various functions political parties perform in a democracy.

Ans-

1. Parties contest elections. In most democracies, elections are fought mainly among the candidates put up by political parties. .

2. Parties put forward different policies and programmes and the voters choose from them.

3. Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country.

4. Parties form and run governments. Parties recruit leaders, train them and then make them ministers to run the government in the way they want.

5. Those parties that lose in the elections play the role of opposition.  They criticise government for its failures or wrong policies.

6. Parties shape public opinion. They raise and highlight issues. Parties sometimes also launch movements for the resolution of problems faced by people. 

7. Parties provide people access to government machinery and welfare schemes implemented by governments. For an ordinary citizen it is easy to approach a local party leader than a government officer. 

Q2. What are the various challenges faced by political parties?

The first challenge is lack of internal democracy within parties. 

All over the world there is a tendency in political parties towards the concentration of power in one or few leaders at the top. 

Parties do not keep membership registers, do not hold organisational meetings, and do not conduct internal elections regularly. 

Ordinary members of the party do not get sufficient information on what happens inside the party.  Since one or few leaders exercise paramount power in the party, those who disagree with the leadership find it difficult to continue in the party. 

The second challenge is dynastic succession. 

Since most political parties do not practice open and transparent procedures for their functioning, there are very few ways for an ordinary worker to rise to the top in a party. 

Those who happen to be the leaders are in a position of unfair advantage to favour people close to them or even their family members. 

In many parties, the top positions are always controlled by members of one family, This is unfair to other members of that party. This is also bad for democracy.

The third challenge is about the growing role of money and muscle power in parties, especially during elections. Since parties are focussed only on winning elections, they tend to use short-cuts to win elections. They tend to nominate those candidates who have or can raise lots of money.  In some cases, parties support criminals who can win elections.

The fourth challenge is that very often parties do not seem to offer a meaningful choice to the voters. In order to offer meaningful choice, parties must be significantly different. In recent years there has been a decline in the ideological differences among parties in most parts of the world. Sometimes people cannot even elect very different leaders either, because the same set of leaders keep shifting from one party to another 

Q3. Suggest some reforms to strengthen parties so that they perform their functions well?

Ans-

1. It should be made mandatory for political parties to give a minimum number of tickets, about one-third, to women candidates Similarly, there should be a quota for women in the decision making bodies of the party.

2. There should be state funding of elections. The government should give parties money to support their election expenses. 

3. A law should be made to 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 party disputes, to hold open elections to the highest posts.

There are two other ways in which political parties can be reformed. 

One, people can put pressure on political parties. This can be done through petitions, publicity and agitations.

Two, political parties can improve if those who want reforms join political parties. It is difficult to reform politics if ordinary citizens do not take part in it and simply criticise it from the outside. The problem of bad politics can be solved by more and better politics. 

Q4. What is a political party?

Ans- A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. 

Q5. What are the characteristics of a political party?

Ans- 

1. Political Parties agree on some policies and programmes for betterment of society. 

2. Parties try to persuade people why their policies are better than others. They seek to implement these policies by winning popular support through elections.

3. Parties reflect fundamental political divisions in a society. Parties are about a part of the society and thus involve PARTISANSHIP. . 

4. A political party has three components:

a) The leaders,

b) The active members and

c) The followers

Q6. What is the necessity of political parties in a democratic Country?

Ans-

We can understand the necessity of political parties by imagining a situation without parties. 

Every candidate in the elections will be independent. So no one will be able to make any promises to the people about any major policy changes. 

The government may be formed, but its utility will remain ever uncertain. 

The rise of political parties is directly linked to the emergence of representative democracies. As societies became large and complex, they also needed some agency to gather different views on various issues and to present these to the government. They needed some ways, to bring various representatives together so that a responsible government could be formed. They needed a mechanism to support or restrain the government, make policies, justify or

oppose them. Political parties fulfill these needs that every representative government has. We can say that parties are a necessary condition for a democracy.

Q7.  Mention the steps taken by the constitution to reform political parties in India.

Ans-

The Constitution was amended to revent elected MLAs and MPs from changing parties.  Now the law says that if any MI.A orMP changes parties, he or she will lose the seat in the legislature. This new law has helped bring defection down.

The Supreme Court passed an order to reduce the influence of money and criminals. Now, it is mandatory for every candidate who contests elections to file an AFFIDANTT giving details of his property and criminal cases pending against him. 

The Election Commission passed an order making it necessary for political parties to hold their organisational elections and file their income tax returns. 

Q8.  Define Multi-Party system. Also mention it's disadvantage and advantage.

Ans-

If several parties compete for power, and more than two parties have a reasonable chance of coming to power either on their own strength or in alliance with others, we call it a multiparty system.

Disadvantage 

The multiparty system often appears very messy and leads to political instability. 

Advantage 

This system allows a variety of interests and opinions to enjoy political representation.