UPSC SOCIOLOGY Syllabus :
Paper 1 – Chapter 6 – Politics and Society:
(a) Sociological theories of power
(b) Power elite, bureaucracy, pressure groups, and political parties.
(c) Nation, state, citizenship, democracy, civil society, ideology.
(d) Protest, agitation, social movements, collective action, revolution.
- “An organised structure which promotes candidates, contest elections for the aim of capturing power.” – Max Weber
- A political party is generally described as an organized body of people who share
common principles and cherish certain common goals regarding the political
system. - A political party operates and seeks political power through constitutional means to translate its policies into practice.
- It is a body of like-minded people having similar views on matters of public concern. Gilchrist defines a political party as “an organized group of citizens who profess or share the same political views and who by acting as a political unit, try to control the government”.
- Another definition given by Gettell is: “a political party consists of a group of citizens, more or less organized, who act as a political unit and who, by the use of their voting power, aim to control the government and carry out their general policies”.
CHARACTERISTICS
- It is an organised form of people.
- Generally has an ideology.
- Aims to form government through legitimate means.
- Plays a role in mobilizing public opinion.
FUNCTIONS
- They contest elections.
- They place objectives and programmes before the voters through their
manifestos; - They form opposition when they are in minority in the legislature and constantly put pressure on the government for proper governance;
- They educate people and help in formulating and shaping public opinion;
- They articulate peoples’ demands and convey them to the government;
- They have contributed towards making the institutions and processes of government truly democratic.
ARE POLITICAL PARTIES SOCIAL GROUPS?
- It is a social group because firstly it embodies the system of interdependent activity and inter- personal relationships.
- Secondly it operates in terms of goal oriented coordinated actions.
- In so far it demands from its members of rational direction of their behavior towards commonly acknowledged goal.
- The goal of a political party is to secure political power and hold it either singly or in cooperation with the other political parties.