Question

“Political parties are a necessary condition for a democracy”. Analyse the statement with examples.

Answer 1

Political parties are a necessary condition for a democracy because of the following reasons:

• When societies develop, expand and become more complex in terms of social, economic and political relations, they need political parties to sustain governance.
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• Political parties tend to provide the base on which the praxis of government is built.
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• Political parties gather public views on various important issues, articulate them and then present them to the government, which is what democracy is.
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• Parties bring various representatives together, support or restrain government and its apparatus, develop policies, justify or oppose them in the public domain depending on their political ideology.
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• Finally, parties which fail to form the government form the opposition and monitor the actions of the ruling party, thereby preventing the misuse or abuse of limits imposed by the Constitution.