Political parties are the building blocks of democratic institutions and a functional, transparent, participatory and accountable democracy is essential to achieve development objectives of a country.
This was crux of a debate on the "The Role of Political Parties in a Democracy" at a training workshop for political activists, arranged by National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in co-operation with the Centre for Civic Education Pakistan under USAID-funded Political Party Development Programme here on Saturday.
The theme of the workshop was "Effective Party Management" and members of Pakistan Muslim League, Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Muslim League-N, Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam (F), and Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) participated in it.
Ms Julie Koenen-Grant, Director, Office of Democracy and Governance USAID-Pakistan, spoke on Role of Political Parties in Democracy - the US Experience. Hamish St Clair Daniel (OBE), UK Deputy High Commissioner, Karachi, and Ms Verena von Roedern, Consul General in Karachi of the Federal Republic of Germany, shared the UK and German experiences on the subject, respectively.
Ms Julie Koenen-Grant said the concept of "Loyal opposition" is central to any democracy. It means that despite sometimes deep ideological differences, all sides in the political debate share unquestioned loyalty to their country and respect for its institutions.
She said that parties that lose elections step into the role of opposition - confident that the political system will continue to protect their right to organise, speak out and to campaign again for its ideas, and the votes of the people. "In a democracy, the struggle between political parties is not a fight for survival, but a competition to serve the people," she added.
"In the US, parties recognise that political views are fluid and changeable, and that consensus can often arise out of the clash of ideas and values in peaceful free, and public debate." She said a political party needs to occasionally revisit and update its positions and belief to ensure its relevance to the voters.
Parties also need to find a way to get this accomplished. Political parties need to be viewed as organic structures. They need to grow, attract new members, and grow new leadership, she remarked.
Ms Verena von Roedern said that in Germany, politics without or outside of parties is inconceivable. She said the German electoral system is based on a combination of majority vote and proportional representation, different from the predominantly two-party systems for example in the US and Britain. This system ensures chances for more that two parties to be represented in the parliament and adds checks and balances to the party forming the majority- and the government.
Important decisions regarding the future of the country are taken inside party structures.
"The Basic Law makes it mandatory for political parties that their internal organisation conforms to democratic principles and accounts for their assets and for the sources and use of their funds."
Hamish St Clair Daniel said party organisations in the UK combines well-developed central party machines with strong local infrastructures. Constituency Associations in each electoral district are formed of party members and activists who elect their officers, raise funds, campaign locally and approve candidates. They are subject to guidance rather than direction from the centre.
Parties in the UK also have well-developed mechanisms for electing and renewing their leaders and main office-holders.
Political Party Development Programme is a multi-party programme and its previous workshops were held on themes such as leadership, party strategies and campaign and communication. More than 173 political activists (both women and men) belonging to nine mainstream political parties from Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab participated in these training workshops.