Last Updated on March 5, 2021 by Filip Poutintsev
A political party is an organized group of people structured in a systematic way who have the same ideology, objectives, and programs to implement the party’s agendas for the governance of the country. 
Political parties exist at local, regional, and national levels to represent their visions and values. Members are elected through voting method to select the deserving candidate to run the office of the government. It plays a vital role in a democratic country.
Pros of Political Parties
There are different systems of political parties in different countries. These countries have adopted one particular party system that is supported by a mass of people and is most likely expected to work for the welfare of the people of the country.
For example; the USA has a two-party system whereas China, Cuba, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have a one-party system. Similarly, there are countries that adopt a multi-party systems such as Brazil, Germany, India and many more. Below are some of the pros and cons of political parties.
1. Select Deserving Political candidate or Party
One of the major functions of a political party is to select the right member to run the office. Through this process, only those with good academic credibility, skills, and experience are elected for governing the country.
2. Encourage Citizens to Participate in Political Affairs
Political party plays a vital role in the development of a country. Basically a country is composed of different states and each state has its own rule of law and principles for handling various issues.
A country is made up of different kind of peoples following different cultures, religion, and ethnicity. To acknowledge those varieties of groups of people political parties are formed. So every citizen is rightfully responsible for their actions and behavior to maintain a sound social environment. Moreover, political party encourages them to become more vocal in putting forth their opinions and beliefs and selecting the right candidates for the nations.
3. Political Parties Act as a Bridge Between the Citizens and the Government.
A sort of check and balance in the government is provided by a political party. The needs of the citizens are acknowledged by the legislators who belong to their party. They listen to and understands the requirement of the country’s problems with the help of people living in it.
So proper understanding should be created between the citizens and government for proper governance of the nations. The political party also helps in educating the citizens about the country’s political and electoral system so they can elect their government officials.
Political parties are an ideal tool that could be used to share information throughout the society through its members in the grassroots.
4. Quick Decisions are Made with Political Parties.
A righteous candidates are responsible for making fast decisions and it becomes handy when problems are complex. Decisions made by the party are binding to all party members.
Political parties are composed of different leaders from different groups of people. In order to solve the problem quickly proper understanding of the problems is needed which is possible through candidates from those affected areas.
5. Political Parties Creates Stability in the Nations.
Stability is something that is required to develop the country in the long run. Without stability, the political party cannot achieve its motive for developing nations. So political parties play a vital role in establishing stability not only to the members but also to the people at large.
Cons of Political Party
1. Corruption, Bribery and Bad Governance
Political parties are not always promising as they seem to be. They can have fake agendas and policies for the good of the people. Some of the political parties buy people’s votes while others make meaningless promises to the citizens just to get into office.
Large sum of money are given by people’s and organization to prioritize their interest for political parties during their election campaign and this leads to corruption obviously. Political parties invest a large sum of money when high ranked members are involved in mega corruption.
2. Misuse of Power
The government has different forms so every government is not a representative form of government. Dictatorships and communism use political parties for the purpose of enforcing laws and expectations instead of being politically active from an individualized perspective. So with too much strength or power within a society, a political party can be abusive.
In China, a president can remain in power for life and in Russia, Vladimir Putin is in leadership role since 1999. Absolute rule that are negatively influenced often tend to create a turmoil that usually disturbs the social setting. Absolute power creates corruption and bad governance.
3. Running a Political Party is Expensive
About $3 billion is spent by each political party to run an election in the United States. In US history about $1 trillion is spent by a political party to put people into government positions. The same trend follows all over the world for election programs.
4. Political Party Can Create Factionalism
The political party could create animosity between parties, encourage jealousy and develop occasional riots and insurrection. As a result, the public could not agree on certain levels and forced to form factions among them.
Sometimes they give anger-filled speeches to other parties for discouraging them which can fuel hate and anger between their supporters. Such a situation may be an avenue for polarization and social exclusivity.
5. Political Party Creates Inequality
The political party creates an imbalance in society and in turn inequality. Divisions are created among members of the party due to favoritism rather than quality. This leads to dissatisfaction among members of the party which eventually leads to bad governance in the country.
