What a Political Party Is

The Tenth Schedule gives the party a hold over its members that no other association has. Paragraph 2 disqualifies a member who voluntarily gives up membership of the party that set them up, or who votes or abstains contrary to a direction of that party without permission and without condonation within fifteen days. Chapter 790 works this out.

What the Constitution itself does not do. The Constitution as adopted did not mention political parties at all, and they entered its text only through the Tenth Schedule in 1985. That is a striking fact about a document designed to establish a parliamentary democracy, and it is worth a sentence in an answer.

What parties do

Six functions, and a question may ask for these alone.

Aggregating interests. A party takes the demands of many groups and combines them into a programme that can be presented to an electorate. Chapter 70's interest groups articulate; parties aggregate.

Simplifying the choice. A voter cannot assess a thousand candidates on a hundred issues. A party label carries information, and without parties an election would be unintelligible.

Recruiting and training leaders. Almost every person who holds executive office in a parliamentary system arrives through a party.

Forming and sustaining a government. In a parliamentary system the executive exists only so long as it commands a majority, and a party is what makes a stable majority possible.

Providing opposition. An organised alternative that scrutinises, criticises and is ready to take office is a constitutional necessity, and it is a party that supplies it.

Political education and mobilisation. Explaining issues, drawing people into public life, and bringing them to vote.

The kinds of party

By organisation. Cadre parties, built on a small body of activists; mass parties, built on a large enrolled membership; and catch-all parties, which subordinate ideology to the widest possible appeal.

By ideology. Programmatic parties committed to a doctrine; pragmatic parties that adjust; and parties organised around a personality, a region or a community.

By the system they operate in. One-party, two-party and multi-party systems, which is chapter 810's material.

In India, by recognition. National parties, State parties, and registered unrecognised parties, which is a legal classification with practical consequences.

A worked example

A farmers' organisation with three lakh members has campaigned for a decade on procurement prices. It decides to contest the next State election.

Before the decision it was an interest group. It sought to influence whoever governed; it took no position on education, policing or the budget; and it accepted no responsibility for anything except its own demand.

The moment it contests, four things change.

It must have a position on everything. A voter asking what it will do about school fees cannot be told that this is outside its remit.

It must appeal beyond its members. Three lakh members will not win a State, so it must ask for the votes of people who are not farmers, which requires a programme framed as a general interest.

It becomes answerable. If it wins and procurement prices do not rise, it will be blamed, which it never was as a group.

And it acquires legal identity. It must register under section 29A, its memorandum must contain the allegiance provision, its elected members become subject to the Tenth Schedule, and its symbol becomes a legal question.

Notice that the fourth is a consequence of the first three and not an administrative detail. Indian law recognises the party as an entity precisely because it is doing something an interest group does not do.

Distinctions that carry marks

What a political party is NOT

It is not a group of people who agree. Every large party contains deep disagreement, and it is held together by the pursuit of office as much as by doctrine.

It is not defined by ideology. Parties organised around a region, a community or a leader are parties, and in India many of the most successful are.

It is not the same as a faction. A faction operates within a party for control of it; a party operates in the electoral arena for control of the government.

And it is not mentioned in the Constitution as adopted. Parties entered the constitutional text only in 1985, through the Tenth Schedule.

Quick revision

1. Five features: organisation; some coherence of programme; the pursuit of governmental power, which is decisive; a claim to speak for a general interest; and the acceptance of responsibility for governing.
2. Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act 1951: registration with the Election Commission, the memorandum containing the provision on true faith and allegiance to the Constitution and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy, and the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.
3. Recognition as a State or national party comes from the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order under article 324 and turns on seats and vote share; it brings a reserved symbol and broadcasting time.
4. The Tenth Schedule, paragraph 2, gives a party a legal hold over its members that no other association has.
5. Six functions: aggregating interests, simplifying the choice, recruiting leaders, forming and sustaining a government, providing an opposition, and political education.
6. The Constitution as adopted did not mention parties at all. They entered its text in 1985.

Test yourself

1. Define a political party and give its essential features. An organised body of persons holding broadly similar political views who seek to obtain and exercise governmental power, ordinarily by contesting elections, in order to give effect to a programme. Its features are organisation, with a structure, membership and a means of taking decisions; a measure of programmatic coherence, though not unanimity; the pursuit of governmental office rather than merely of influence, which is the decisive feature; a claim to speak for a general rather than a sectional interest; and the acceptance of responsibility for governing and of the electorate's judgment on it.

2. Where does Indian law define and regulate political parties? Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act 1951 provides for registration with the Election Commission, requiring the party's memorandum or rules to contain a specific provision that it will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution as by law established and to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy, and will uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India. Recognition as a State or national party is separate, arising under the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order made under article 324 and depending on seats and votes. And the Tenth Schedule, inserted in 1985, gives a party a legal hold over its elected members.

3. What functions do parties perform? They aggregate interests, combining the demands of many groups into a programme presentable to an electorate, where interest groups only articulate. They simplify the electoral choice, since a party label carries information no voter could otherwise assemble. They recruit and train the people who hold executive office. They form and sustain governments, which in a parliamentary system depend on a stable majority. They provide an organised opposition ready to take office. And they educate and mobilise, explaining issues and bringing people to vote.

4. Why must a party claim to speak for a general interest? Because it seeks office, and office is won by the votes of people whose interests differ. A body appealing only to one section cannot assemble a majority, so it must present a programme framed for the whole community. That is why large parties are broad, internally inconsistent and often vague, and why those features are consequences of what a party is rather than defects in particular parties.

5. What changes when an interest group becomes a party? It must take a position on the whole of policy rather than on one interest, since a voter's question about any subject cannot be answered by saying it is outside its remit. It must appeal beyond its own members, framing its programme as a general interest, because its membership will not win an election by itself. It becomes answerable for outcomes it was never blamed for as a group. And it acquires legal identity: registration under section 29A, the allegiance provision in its memorandum, a symbol that becomes a legal question, and elected members subject to the Tenth Schedule.