A multi-party system is a system in which multiple political
parties across the political spectrum run for national election, and all have
the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in coalition.[1]
Apart from one-party-dominant and two-party
systems, multi-party systems tend to be more common in parliamentary systems than presidential systems and far more common in
countries that use proportional representation compared
to countries that use first-past-the-post elections.
Decoding Jargon:
A first-past-the-post (FPTP)
voting method is one in which voters indicate on a
ballot the candidate of their choice, and the candidate who receives the most
votes wins: this is described as winner
takes all. First-past-the-post voting is a plurality voting method. FPTP is a common, but not
universal, feature of electoral systems with single-member
electoral divisions, and is
practiced in close to one third of countries. Notable examples include Canada, India, Pakistan, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as most of their current or former colonies and protectorates.
Proportional
representation (PR)
characterizes electoral systems by which divisions in an electorate
are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If n% of the electorate
support a particular political party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by
that party.
Argentina,
Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, India, Indonesia,
Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, Moldova, Nepal, the Netherlands,
New
Zealand, Norway,
the Philippines,
Portugal,
Romania, Serbia, Spain, Sri Lanka,
Sweden, Switzerland,
Taiwan, Tunisia and Ukraine are
examples of nations that have used a multi-party system effectively in their democracies.
In these countries, usually no single party has a parliamentary majority by
itself. Instead, multiple political parties are compelled to form compromised
coalitions
for the purpose of developing power blocks and attaining legitimate mandate.
- Wikipedia
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Fun Fact:
There are only two major political
parties in the United States. This is a winner-take-all system because there
is no reward for the party or candidate that finishes second. As a
result, two political parties usually dominate plurality electoral
systems to the disadvantage of smaller third parties, just as the
Democrats and the Republicans dominate the American political system.
- Google Search (Why are there only two major political parties in
the United States?)
- SparkNotes: Political Parties: The American Two-Party System
(http://www.sparknotes.com/us-government-and-politics/american-government/political-parties/section2.rhtml)
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Two
major levels for political parties in India:
National
Party
A registered party is recognised as a National Party only if it fulfils
any one of the following three conditions:
State
Party
A registered party has to fulfill any of the following conditions for
recognition as a State Party:
There are 50 recognised state parties as of 5 May 2017 in India.
Among them is “Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), founded in 2012, lead by Arvind
Kejriwal with recognition in Delhi and Punjab.”
- Wikipedia
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Success stories
1. Emmanuel Macron, the President
of France (assumed office on 14 May 2017) and founder of political party “La
République En Marche! (2016–present)”
Macron founded the En Marche! (English translation:
"Forward!", "Onward!", "Working!" or "On
The Move!"), a centrist political movement in April 2016. Macron
describes La République En Marche! to be a progressive
movement, uniting both the left and the right.
Macron founded the independent political party, En Marche!,
in Amiens on 6 April 2016. A liberal, progressive
political movement that gathered huge media coverage when it was first
established, the party and Macron were both reprimanded by President Hollande
and the question of Macron's loyalty to the government was risen.
Before resigning from the government in August 2016 to launch a bid
in the 2017 presidential election,
Macron had held positions like Inspector of Finances, Deputy
Secretary-General of the Élysée, Minister of Economy and Finance.
In November 2016, Macron declared that he would run in the election
under the banner of En Marche!, a centrist political
movement he founded in April 2016.
Macron won the election on 7 May 2017 beating the Front National’s
Marine Le Pen by a landslide 66.1% of the second-round vote.
Political positions:
Macron has been described by some observers as a social liberal and
by others as a social democrat. During his time in the French Socialist
Party, he supported the party's centrist wing, whose political stance has
been associated with "third way" policies advanced by Bill Clinton,
Tony Blair and Gerhard Schröder, and whose leading spokesman has been former
prime minister Manuel Valls. Overall Macron is largely seen as a centrist.
Decoding Jargon:
Centrism:
In politics, centrism, the centre or the center (American English) is a political outlook or specific
position that involves acceptance or support of a balance of a degree of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy, while opposing political changes which
would result in a significant shift of society either strongly to the left or the right.
Left-wing politics:
Left-wing politics supports social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy and social
inequality.
Right-wing politics:
Right-wing politics hold that
certain social orders and hierarchies are inevitable, natural, normal or
desirable,[1][2][3] typically supporting this position on the basis of
natural law, economics or tradition. Hierarchy and inequality may be viewed
as natural results of traditional social differences or the competition in
market economies. The term right-wing can generally refer to "the
conservative or reactionary section of a political party or system".
The political terms
"Left" and "Right" were first used during the French
Revolution (1789–1799) and referred to seating arrangements in the French
parliament: those who sat to the right of the chair of the parliamentary
president were broadly supportive of the institutions of the monarchist Old
Regime. The original Right in France was formed as a reaction against the
"Left" and comprised those politicians supporting hierarchy,
tradition and clericalism. The use of the expression la droite ("the
right") became prominent in France after the restoration of the monarchy
in 1815, when it was applied to the Ultra-royalists. The people of
English-speaking countries did not apply the terms "right" and
"left" to their own politics until the 20th century.
- Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmanuel_Macron)
2. Arvind Kejriwal
(born 16 August 1968) is an Indian politician and a former bureaucrat who is
the current and 7th Chief Minister of Delhi since February
2015.
In 2012, he launched the Aam Aadmi Party, and the party won in the
2013 Delhi Legislative Assembly election. Following the election, he took
office as the Chief Minister of Delhi on 28 December 2013. He resigned 49
days later, on 14 February 2014, stating he did so because of his minority
government's inability to pass his proposed anti-corruption legislation due
to a lack of support from other political parties.
In 2015, his party won the 2015 Delhi Assembly
elections with a majority, obtaining 67 out of 70 assembly seats. On 14
February 2015, he was sworn in as Chief Minister for a second term after his
party's victory in the Delhi Legislative Assembly election.
3. Bernie
Sanders (United States Senator from Vermont (Incumbent) Assumed office
on January 3, 2007)
Bernard Sanders (born September 8, 1941) is an American politician
serving as the junior United States Senator from Vermont since 2007; he is
the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history. Since his
election to the House of Representatives in 1990, he has caucused with the
Democratic Party, which has entitled him to congressional committee
assignments and at times given Democrats a majority.
A self-described democratic socialist and a New Deal-era American
progressive, Sanders is pro-labor and emphasizes reversing economic
inequality. Many scholars consider his views to be more in line with social
democracy.
Sanders was born and raised in the Brooklyn borough of New York City
and graduated from the University of Chicago in 1964. While a student he was
an active protest organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality and the
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee during the Civil Rights Movement.
After settling in Vermont in 1968, Sanders ran unsuccessful third-party
campaigns for governor and U.S. senator in the early to mid-1970s. As an
independent, he was elected mayor of Burlington—Vermont's most populous city
of 42,417 in 2010—in 1981, by a margin of ten votes. He went on to be
reelected as mayor three times. In 1990, he was elected to represent
Vermont's at-large congressional district in the U.S. House of
Representatives, where he co-founded the Congressional Progressive Caucus in
1991. He served as a congressman for 16 years before being elected to the
U.S. Senate in 2006. In 2012, he was reelected with 71% of the popular vote.
Sanders announced his campaign for the Democratic presidential
nomination on April 30, 2015. Initially considered a long shot, Sanders won
23 primaries and caucuses and approximately 43% of pledged delegates to Clinton's
55%. His campaign was noted for its supporters' enthusiasm, as well as for
his rejection of large donations from corporations, the financial industry,
and any associated Super PAC. On July 12, 2016, Sanders formally endorsed
Clinton in her unsuccessful general election campaign against Republican
Donald Trump, while urging his supporters to continue the "political
revolution" his campaign had begun.
Decoding Jargon:
Democratic socialism: is
a political ideology that advocates political democracy alongside social
ownership of the means of production with an emphasis on self-management or
democratic management of economic institutions within a market socialist or
decentralized socialist planned economy.
Means of production:
In economics and sociology, the
means of production are physical, non-human and non-financial inputs used for
the production of economic value: raw materials, the facilities, machinery
and tools used in the production of goods. In the terminology of classical
economics, the means of production are the "factors of production"
minus financial capital and minus human capital.
Social ownership:
A form of collective ownership
in which the control and organization of an industry, company, etc., are
shared, especially by its workers or by the community at large.
Social
ownership refers to the various
forms of ownership for the means of production in socialist
economic systems; encompassing public ownership, employee ownership,
cooperative ownership, citizen ownership of equity and common ownership.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNy6-mVtVTo)
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