Types of Party Systems

Political parties are a necessary condition for democracy. In a democratic country, it is the citizens’ fundamental right to form the political parties, that is the reason, we find a large number of political parties in each country.

More than 75o parties are registered with the election commission of India. but not all these parties are serious contenders in elections, Only a few parties are in competition to win the election and form the government.

thus the question is ‘How many parties are good for Democracy’? for answering these question we need to understand the types of parties systems.

There are three types of party systems:

One-Party System

The One-Party System is a Political system in which only one party is allowed to rule the country, meaning only one party exists and people are not allowed to form the parties. China, North Korea, and Cuba are such countries.

We cannot consider a one-party system as a democratic option because while voting in elections, people do not have many choices since there is only one party. Any democratic system must allow at least two parties to compete in the election and provide a fair chance for the competing parties to come to power.

Two-Party System

In a two-party system, the power of the government shifts between two major parties of the countries. Several other parties may exist, contest elections, and win a few seats too. But only two parties have serious chances of winning the majority of seats to form the government.

The United States of America and the United Kingdom are examples of two-party systems

Multi-Party System

The most common form of the political system is the multi-party system. In such a system, there are three or more parties that have the capacity to win the majority of seats and form the government.

In case, no party gets a clear majority of the legislative seats, then several parties join forces and form a government known as a Coalition Government. We can not understand the concept of a coalition government without discussing the Alliances in India.

An Alliance- When several parties join hands to contest the election and win the power is called an alliance.

The major alliances of India are-

NDA- The National Democratic Alliance (Founded in 1998, Chairperson — Mr. Amit Shah)

UPA-The United Progressive Alliance (Founded in 2004, Chairperson — Mrs. Sonia Gandhi)

Left Front (Founded in 1977, chairperson — Mr. Biman Bose )

here we are to our question-

How many parties are good for Democracy?

or

How many parties we should have?

• The party system is not something that any country can choose. It evolves over a long time, depending on the nature of society, its social and regional divisions, its history of politics, and its system of elections. If we talk about India, India is a large country with social and geographical diversity. All these diversity cannot be absorbed by two or even three parties. Thus India is a multi-party system.
• Please watch my video on Types of Party Systems. Class 10 Chapter-6 #CBSE #Typesof PartySystems #civics