Political Parties and Group Pressures

POLITICAL parties are devices for doing indirectly in democratic societies what is done directly in nondemocratic societies. That is to say, they control the approaches to public power and are the instrumentalities by which powerful groups within the community achieve control of government and maintain themselves in power. The advent of democracy not only shattered the old framework of political society, it destroyed the hierarchy of classes and their internal cohesion, and the time-honored social ties which bound the individual to the community. .. . Moreover, it opened the path to power to large masses of men who were united by no common ideal or interest as had been the case with the landed aristocracy. The increase in the number of those whose consent was to be required made impossible the old system of direct government. Under these circumstances, if government was not to degenerate into chaos, it became necessary to mold this inchoate mass into some semblance of unity. Individuals had become literally stranded in the mass. The old ties had dissolved or been destroyed. New bonds of union had to be forged. Moreover, the obstacle of mass consent had been interposed between the desire and the realization of power. The democratic statesman or politician must secure assent from tens of thousands of individuals with a myriad of diverse interests. Out of such circumstances arose modern political parties

Democracy · Government (linguistics · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · Law · Political Theory and Influence · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Religion and Society Interactions

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