Political Participation Essay

There are three most important components of politics namely- political party, interest groups, and social movements. . An organization or group of people working together to gain political power is called political party. People which have common motive or interest , get together for influencing political process is called interest group. â€Å"An informal network of activists who seek to transform the values of the society is called social movement . †(An introduction to political science edited by RAND DYCK page 337). Considering the importance of political participation in the political arena although these components are imperfect but they still have a lot of role to be played in the political arena . â€Å"Political parties are one of the fundamental elements in contemporary liberal democracies. The place that they occupy is itself a consequence of the very concept of democracy, founded upon the pluralism of interests, the unanimous rejection of single party system, and political competition in choosing of the leaders and policies. But over and above that fundamental and crucial choice, western political parties appear to be playing an increasingly important role as consequence of functions that they assume in the life of liberal political societies. It is fair to say, without exaggeration, that the political parties control the political process from the raising of political consciousness to the elaboration of policies and their implementation. Admittedly, the political parties are by no means the only agents involved ( not only is the party system pluralistic ,but the parties themselves hold no monopoly over the exercise of some of their functions), and their role, furthermore, varies from one country to another. But they are usually the essential agents in political life. † (government and politics in western Europe by YVES MENY page 79) â€Å"Like political parties , interest groups play a vital role in making public opinion heard in government. In the united states it is comparatively simple to organize a group whose purpose is to influence government . moreover , there are so many groups that already exist that finding one sympathetic to one’s goal is not difficult. The political process is also open to communication from organized groups as well as from individuals. Even groups advocating controversial positions will usually find someone in government willing to hear them out. Interest groups operate in many different ways. Some organizations seek to mobilize public pressure on government through techniques such as letter writing campaigns or public demonstrations. Others work more directly with government officials ,lobbying for appointment of judges and administrators and supporting certain court cases are common interest group tactics . † (politics a handbook for students by ROBERT WEISSBERG PAGE 79) Like political parties and interest groups, social movements also play an important role in political arena . social movements help in putting pressure on the government for changing some values and norms for the society. Social movement is form of rebel against the government for changing some laws or norms of the society. There are various ways of doing social movement even except doing violence for example non-cooperating with the government , doing fasts and gathering on roads and protesting against the government . social movement is one of the way for citizens to express their views to government , to participate in political system and to influence the policies of the government. â€Å"Interest groups and social movements are sometimes also called nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). This term is particularly common in the fields of international relations and development, but NGOs are also active in domestic politics. Such organizations are part of neither the state nor international organizations such as united nation . in addition to targeting states and trying to change domestic policies, they aim to influence international organizations such as UN and world trade organization . (WTO) â€Å" ( STUDYING POLITICS EDITED BY RAND DYCK WRITER- MIRIAM SMITH PAGE 338 ). Examples showing role of political parties In India , political parties has a significant role to be played in political arena for political stability and political efficiency. India is a multiparty system containing six national political parties namely- nationalist congress party , Indian national congress, bharatiya janta party, communist party of India, bahujan samaj party, communist party of india(Marxist). There are also different state parties in India. One of them that I know about is SHIROMANI AKALIDAL . SHIROMANI AKALIDAL is currently ruling party of punjab . This party has played an important role in development of punjab as a state. They have made many budgets get passed from the central government for the development of the state. In Anandpur sahib shiromani akalidal party passed a budget to make VIRASAT –E-KHALSA. This is one of the great sikh museum showing all the sikh history. This sikh history museum is also known as khalsa heritage. shiromani akalidal is also passing bills for giving subsidies to set up industries . shiromani akalidal is also helping farmers by providing subsidies and pesticides and fertilizers at cheaper rates. It is also passing bills for developing roads and building big multi complexes. This party has consecutively won the election twice as they are doing the good job in developing the state. This party is playing an important role in developing the state. This is what the role of the political party is and it has great importance in developing the state through participation in political arena . political parties are helpful in almost all types of governments to develop the state except in the cases of dictatorship, authoritarian regime and totalitarian regime. Examples showing role of interest group In india, business group can also be the example of interest group. All the businesses have same interest or motive so they get together to influence political process of the government. Interest group is type of pressure group which puts pressure on the government for achieving their motive. Business groups have the same motive one is to increase the profit and other is to lessen the government requirements to proceed in the business. They always put pressure on the government to reduce the taxes so as to increase their profit. They also put pressure on government to pass the annual budget more in favour of development of business organizations . They also force the government to pass the laws for not allowing the foreign companies to settle in their country so as to decrease competition and hence earn higher profits. There are many other pressure groups which are influencing the government through their participation in political arena like student organization , linguistic groups, professional groups , peasants organization and media. All these are influencing political processes of government through participation in political arena and achieving their motives. This political participation by pressure groups is forcing government to make the rules or laws in which all the groups are satisfied and hence proper laws by the government for its citizens. Examples showing role of social movements It is a movement that strives to change political or social values of the society. There are many social movements which have influenced the political working of the government and hence changed the social value of the society. one of the movement made by Gandhi before the independence of india by gathering people of CHAMPARAN was DALIT movement . DALITS are those people who were traditionally considered untouchables. In this movement Gandhi want the upliftment of rights of peasants who were considered untouchables by the society so for bringing equality in the people he lived in dalits houses for almost more than one and half month. He also wrote the letter to the legislature for making some laws which uplift socio-economic status of the dalits. These social movements thus help in changing the social values of the society which are detrimental for the society and hence transforming the society and making it a best society to live in where there is equality and all norms and laws which are good for the society and its individuals. conclusion Considering the importance of political participation in political arena, it can be concluded that role of political parties , interest groups and social movements has not been overstated and they play an important role in the politics of the government and in improving the society. Political parties help in development of the state through making bills pass from the central government for all the purposes like construction of national highways and for subsidies to different groups and thus play an important role in development of the state through political participation. Interest group also play an important role in political life of government through political influence in the political processes of the government . Interest groups influence political processes for achieving their motives and this does not allow the government to overuse its powers . Hence it plays an Important role through political participation in political arena. social movements also play an important role in the political arena as they help in transforming the social values of the society which are not good for the society. In the nutshell , it can be concluded that political parties , interest groups and social movements all these have significant role to be played in political arena.