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SAI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

SESSION 2020-21

CLASS-X

POLITICAL SCIENCE-CH-6-POLITICAL PARTIES

Lesson Notes

SUB-TOPIC-1

Sub-Topic Notes
Why do Why do we need political parties?
we need 1. Political parties are easily one of the most visible institutions in a democracy.
political 2. Parties have become identified with social and political divisions.
parties? 3. About hundred years ago there were a few countries of the world that had
Pg No-72- any political party: Now there are few that do not have parties.
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Meaning:
1. A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections
and hold power in the government.
2. They agree on some policies and programs for the society with a view to
promoting the collective good.
3. Parties reflect fundamental political divisions in a society. Parties are a part of
the society and thus involve PARTNERSHIP.
4. A political party has three components:
I) The leaders,
II) The active members and
III) The followers

Functions:
Basically, political parties fill political offices and exercise political power. Parties
do so by performing a series of functions:
(i) Parties contest elections. In most democracies, elections are fought mainly
among the candidates put up by political parties.
(ii) Parties put forward different policies and programmes and the voters
choose from them.
(iii) Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country. Formally, laws
are debated and passed in the legislature.
(iv) Parties form and run the government. As we noted last year, the big
policy decisions are taken by the political executive that comes from the political
parties.
(v) Those parties that lose in the elections play the role of opposition to the
parties in power, by voicing different views and criticizing the government for its
failures or wrong policies.