Political Parties and Party Systems

Political parties are organizations that seek to win office and govern. They link citizens to government by recruiting candidates, combining many demands into programmes, mobilizing voters and organizing legislatures. Parties are often grouped by ideology (left, centre, right, green, nationalist, religious) or by organization (mass-membership parties, catch-all parties, personal vehicles for a leader).

Countries also differ in their party systems: a two-party system, like that of the United States; a multiparty system, common in continental Europe; a dominant-party system, where one party wins repeatedly in competitive elections, as the Liberal Democratic Party has in Japan; and one-party systems where competition is banned. These patterns are shaped by social divisions such as class, religion and region, and by electoral rules. Scholars debate whether declining party membership in many democracies weakens the link between voters and government.