What, according to Almond and Powell are the functions of a political party?

In the 1970s, political scientists Gabriel Almond and Bingham Powell introduced a structural- functionalist approach to comparing political systems. They argued that, in order to understand a political system, it is necessary to understand not only its institutions (or structures) but also their respective functions. They also insisted that these institutions, to be properly understood, must be placed in a meaningful and dynamic historical context.

This idea stood in marked contrast to prevalent approaches in the field of comparative politics-the state-society theory and the dependency theory. These were the descendants of David Easton’s system theory in international relations, a mechanistic view that saw all political systems as essentially the same, subject to the same laws of “stimulus and response”-or inputs and outputs-while paying little attention to unique characteristics.

The structural-functional approach is based on the view that a political system is made up of several key components, including interest groups, political parties and branches of government.

In addition to structures, Almond and Powell showed that a political system consists of various functions, chief among them political socialisation, recruitment and communication: socialisation refers to the way in which societies pass along their values and beliefs to succeeding generations, and in political terms describe the process by which a society inculcates civic virtues, or the habits of effective citizenship; recruitment denotes the process by which a political system generates interest, engagement and participation from citizens; and communication refers to the way that a system promulgates its values and information.