Party system is a concept in comparative political science concerning the system of government by political parties in a democratic country. The idea is that political parties have basic similarities: they control the government, have a stable base of mass popular support, and create internal mechanisms for controlling funding, information and nominations.

The concept was originated by European scholars studying the United States, especially James Bryce and Moisey Ostrogorsky, and has been expanded to cover other democracies.

This definition suggests three political arenas in which parties may be found. A party exists as label in the mind of voters, as an organization that recruits and campaigns for candidates, and as a set leader who try to organize and control the legislative and executive branches of government. A careful look at the above-mentioned meaning of political party shows it’s certain ha

Marks that distinguish it from similar groups such as temporary organizations, interest groups or factions, etc. For instance, temporary political organizations like Food Price Committee or Famine Resistance Committee, etc., are formed for the single purpose of supporting or opposing a particular temporary issue. Political parties, on the other hand, have some degree of permanence. Secondly, political parties are the only associational groups that are both open to all (at least in theory) and have very wide interests.

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This is because of the fact that they concern themselves with problems of government and cannot concentrate on specific matters. They are open to all, because they try to enlist the support of as many members of all the polity as possible. It is in this context that a political party is different from interest and pressure groups which work only for the advancement of the cause of those groups.

Thirdly, parties must have definite aims and objective. The objectives are often a mixture of ultimate and immediate purposes. Party programmes contain ideas about law and government, ideas about the shape of political things to come and each party seeks to focus its own brand of political ideas.

Fourthly, recognition of material advantages that go with the securing of the power of government forms a part of party programme. In fact, as we see in India today more often than not political parties give priority to capturing power
though they do this in the name of ideology like opposing communalism. In this sense as well, political Parties are different from interest or pressure groups as the latter do not nurse the constituencies for competing at the polls to form the government.

A political party is thus a coalition of group interests pursuing general political policies. Pressure groups, on the other hand, are the living ‘public’ behind the parties. Like interest and pressure groups, and unlike political parties, factions are also not organized for political purposes. But at the same time they do not posses any continuous stable organizations.

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Factions may thus be characterized as a group of persons serving sectional interests within a political party rather than aggregate interests which parties usually champion for winning elections.

As the idea of a common interest and national unity sustains the constitutional appeal to the polls, the logic of party system rejects the Marxian doctrine of class struggle. This implies that parties transcend class-barriers and sectional interests by mutual recognition of rights in the sense that in spite of their differences, political parties do not disagree on every thing.

Oh the basic features of the system to which they belong, there must be a consensus. Political parties may thus be defined as a group consisting of cross-sections of human beings, more or less stable and organized, with the objective, in accordance with the constitution, of securing or maintaining for its leaders the control of a government, and of giving to members of the party, through such control, ideal and material benefits and advantages.