Party REVIEW AND RELATED LITERATURE

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2. REVIEW AND RELATED LITERATURE

2.1 Party

According to literary convention a discussion should be introduced by a definition of its subjects.Pat definition may simplify discussion but they do not necessarily promote understanding.A search for the fundamental nature of party is complicated by the fact that “party” is a word of many meanings.Indeed,the genus party comprehends many species.To define sharply one party may be to exclude another,for the role of party may differ from country to country.Moreover,even within the same political order the term “party” may be applied to different elements of the governing system.An approach more indirect than the proposal of a two-sentence definition may lead toward a comprehension of the basic nature of party in the American system: the nature of parties must be sought through an appreciation of their role in the process of governance. Thomas Y.Crowell 1967:200 Alan Ware,1996 says that Entering government can provide a variety of oppurtunities for individual politicians to pursue their own goals,whether those goals be advancing their particular policy priorities,enjoying the rewards of office,or increasing their influence within the party.Obviously,government is also a resource for the party,controlling it provides the means of enacting public policy but also ways of strengthening the party itself.This is achieved,for example,by placing party supporters in administrative or quasi administrative positions over which the governing party has influence.How important a resource government is 7 varies.That a party has entered government does not necessarily mean that it,or indeed its coalition partners,moves public policies in the direction it wants.Nor is it the case that,for those in office,it is always to the victors,the spoils,in some regimes being in government provides relatively few means of rewarding either the party’s movers and shakers’ or its faithful members. Furthermore,the relative importance of public policy,on the one hand,and office and its rewards,on the other,varies enormously between regimes and also over time.A comparison will help to illustrate this point.During the Jacksonian era 1829-37 and for decades afterwards American parties used control of government to reward their supporters,at the city level,for example,employess served ‘at the pleasure of the mayor’,which meant that they could lose their jobs if they ceased to help their party or subsequently the other party won the mayoral election.It was a system driven primarily by office goals and not policy goals,there were policy differences between the parties,but party competition did not involve conflict over radically different political agendas.This use of government looks very different from that made by,say,the 1945-51 Labour government in Britain. Tim Bale2010:1says: “Parties,if they are in opposition,will do whatever it takes to get into power and,if they are in government,whatever it takes to stay there.” 8

2.2 Dictatorship