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116-466: The Southern Rhodesia African National Congress ( SRANC ) was a political party active between 1957–1959 in Southern Rhodesia (now modern-day Zimbabwe ). Committed to the promotion of indigenous African welfare, it was the first fully fledged black nationalist organisation in the country. While short-lived — it was outlawed by the predominantly white minority government in 1959 — it marked

232-546: A liberal - conservative divide, or around religious disputes. The spread of the party model of politics was accelerated by the 1848 Revolutions around Europe. The strength of political parties in the United States waned during the Era of Good Feelings , but shifted and strengthened again by the second half of the 19th century. This was not the only country in which the strength of political parties had substantially increased by

348-456: A party chair , who may be different people from the party leader. These executive organizations may serve to constrain the party leader, especially if that leader is an autocrat. It is common for political parties to conduct major leadership decisions, like selecting a party executive and setting their policy goals, during regular party conferences . Much as party leaders who are not in power are usually at least nominally competing to become

464-463: A single-member district electoral system tend to have very few parties, whereas countries that use proportional representation tend to have more. The number of parties in a country can also be accurately estimated based on the magnitude of a country's electoral districts and the number of seats in its legislature. An informative way to classify the party systems of the world is by how many parties they include. Because some party systems include

580-416: A candidate in one electoral district has an incentive to assist a similar candidate in a different district. Thus, political parties can be mechanisms for preventing candidates with similar goals from acting to each other's detriment when campaigning or governing. This might help explain the ubiquity of parties: if a group of candidates form a party and are harming each other less, they may perform better over

696-526: A candidate to victory in an election. Some scholars argue that the first modern political parties developed in early modern Britain in the 17th century, after the Exclusion Crisis and the Glorious Revolution . The Whig faction originally organized itself around support for Protestant constitutional monarchy as opposed to absolute rule , whereas the conservative Tory faction (originally

812-403: A community of party members. Parties in democracies usually select their party leadership in ways that are more open and competitive than parties in autocracies, where the selection of a new party leader is likely to be tightly controlled. In countries with large sub-national regions, particularly federalist countries, there may be regional party leaders and regional party members in addition to

928-532: A country with multiple competitive parties is not necessarily democratic, and the politics of many autocratic countries are organized around one dominant political party. The ubiquity and strength of political parties in nearly every modern country has led researchers to remark that the existence of political parties is almost a law of politics, and to ask why parties appear to be such an essential part of modern states. Political scientists have therefore come up with several explanations for why political parties are

1044-413: A democracy will often affiliate with a specific political party. Party membership may include paying dues, an agreement not to affiliate with multiple parties at the same time, and sometimes a statement of agreement with the party's policies and platform. In democratic countries, members of political parties often are allowed to participate in elections to choose the party leadership. Party members may form

1160-451: A democracy. There have been periods of government exclusively or entirely by one party in some countries that are often considered to have been democratic, and which had no official legal barriers to the inclusion of other parties in the government; this includes recent periods in Botswana , Japan , Mexico , Senegal , and South Africa . It can also occur that one political party dominates

1276-600: A growing educated elite of wealthy Africans was developing in the cities. Extreme racism, however, prevented the Black bourgeois from identifying with their White economic counterparts, and they sympathised instead with the plighted rural farmers on reserves. Joshua Nkomo was a graduate of Adams College in Natal and at the Jan H. Hofmeyr School of Social Work in Johannesburg . After working on

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1392-426: A large membership base. Further, mass parties prioritize the mobilization of voters and are more centralized than elite parties. The term "catch-all party" was developed by German-American political scientist Otto Kirchheimer to describe the parties that developed in the 1950s and 1960s as a result of changes within the mass parties. The term "big tent party" may be used interchangeably. Kirchheimer characterized

1508-485: A large number of parties that have a very low probability of winning elections, it is often useful to think about the effective number of parties (the number of parties weighted by the strength of those parties) rather than the literal number of registered parties. In a non-partisan system, no political parties exist, or political parties are not a major part of the political system. There are very few countries without political parties . In some non-partisan countries,

1624-401: A large number of political parties around the world, not all political parties have an organizing ideology, or exist to promote ideological policies. For example, some political parties may be clientelistic or patronage -based organizations, which are largely concerned with distributing goods. Other political parties may be created as tools for the advancement of an individual politician. It

1740-545: A larger membership, greater stability over time, and a deeper connection to the electorate. The idea of people forming large groups or factions to advocate for their shared interests is ancient. Plato mentions the political factions of Classical Athens in the Republic , and Aristotle discusses the tendency of different types of government to produce factions in the Politics . Certain ancient disputes were also factional, like

1856-491: A major upheaval in their politics and have not yet returned to a stable system of political parties. For example, the United States began as a non-partisan democracy, and it evolved a stable system of political parties over the course of many decades. A country's party system may also dissolve and take time to re-form, leaving a period of minimal or no party system, such as in Peru following the regime of Alberto Fujimori . However, it

1972-418: A multi-ethnic executive membership from across the country, which made for a unified national organisation, and included white members such as Guy Clutton-Brock , an anti-apartheid agriculturalist. The Southern Rhodesia Africa National Congress established itself as a nonviolent reform group, acting on platforms of universal suffrage , anti-discrimination, increased standards of living for African peoples,

2088-399: A nearly universal political phenomenon. One of the core explanations for the existence of political parties is that they arise from pre-existing divisions among people: society is divided in a certain way, and a party is formed to organize that division into the electoral competition. By the 1950s, economists and political scientists had shown that party organizations could take advantage of

2204-511: A number of countries, particularly longstanding European democracies. Political scientists have distinguished between different types of political parties that have evolved throughout history. These include elite parties, mass parties, catch-all parties and cartel parties. Elite parties were political elites that were concerned with contesting elections and restricted the influence of outsiders, who were only required to assist in election campaigns. Mass parties tried to recruit new members who were

2320-438: A particular ideology. However, many political parties have no ideological affiliation, and may instead be primarily engaged in patronage , clientelism , the advancement of a specific political entrepreneur , or be a " big tent ", in that they wish to attract voters who have a variety of positions on issues. Political parties are collective entities and activities that organize competitions for political offices. The members of

2436-417: A phenonmenon observable among European Green parties during their transformation from radical environmentalist movements to mainstream centre-left parties. An Entrepreneurial party is a political party that is centered on a political entrepreneur , and dedicated to the advancement of that person or their policies. While some definitions of political parties state that a party is an organization that advances

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2552-440: A political party contest elections under a shared label. In a narrow definition, a political party can be thought of as just the group of candidates who run for office under a party label. In a broader definition, political parties are the entire apparatus that supports the election of a group of candidates, including voters and volunteers who identify with a particular political party, the official party organizations that support

2668-413: A press conference at which a man appeared claiming to have been sent by ZIPRA (ZAPU's military wing) to assassinate four of the co-Ministers, including Chikerema. James Chikerema together with Raymond Chinamora were the editors of a weekly liberation struggle newspaper called The Rise of Zimbabwe . On 29 June 1979 after Abel Muzorewa took over as prime minister, Chikerema led a group of seven members of

2784-863: A realistic chance of competing to form government. One current example of a two-party system is the United States , where the national government has for much of the country's history exclusively been controlled by either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party . Other examples of countries which have had long periods of two-party dominance include Colombia , Uruguay , Malta , and Ghana . Two-party systems are not limited to democracies; they may be present in authoritarian regimes as well. Competition between two parties has occurred in historical autocratic regimes in countries including Brazil and Venezuela . A democracy's political institutions can shape

2900-412: A single best policy choice without some institution constraining their options. Another prominent explanation for why political parties exist is psychological: parties may be necessary for many individuals to participate in politics because they provide a massively simplifying heuristic , which allows people to make informed choices with much less mental effort than if voters had to consciously evaluate

3016-548: A smaller group can be a feature of party leadership transitions in more autocratic countries, where the existence of political parties may be severely constrained to only one legal political party, or only one competitive party. Some of these parties, like the Chinese Communist Party , have rigid methods for selecting the next party leader, which involves selection by other party members. A small number of single-party states have hereditary succession, where party leadership

3132-405: A source of party income and were often expected to spread party ideology as well as assist in elections. In the United States, where both major parties were elite parties, the introduction of primaries and other reforms has transformed them so that power is held by activists who compete over influence and nomination of candidates. An elite party is a type of political party that was dominant in

3248-479: A specific set of ideological or policy goals, many political parties are not primarily motivated by ideology or policy, and instead exist to advance the career of a specific political entrepreneur . Political ideologies are one of the major organizing features of political parties, and parties often officially align themselves with specific ideologies. Parties adopt ideologies for a number of reasons. Ideological affiliations for political parties send signals about

3364-460: A sub-national region of a democratic country that has a competitive national party system; one example is the southern United States during much of the 19th and 20th centuries, where the Democratic Party had almost complete control, with the Southern states being functionally one-party regimes, though opposition parties were never prohibited. In several countries, there are only two parties that have

3480-470: A very large portion of society and it can play substantial roles in civil society that are not necessarily directly related to political governance; one example of this is the Chinese Communist Party . Bans on competing parties can also ensure that only one party can ever realistically hold power, even without completely outlawing all other political parties. For example, in North Korea , more than one party

3596-617: A way that does not conform to the dominant economic left-right divide in politics, in turn emphasising issues that do not attain prominence within the other parties. Further, niche parties do not respond to changes in public opinion to the extent that mainstream parties do. Examples of niche parties include Green parties and extreme nationalist parties, such as the National Rally in France. However, over time these parties may grow in size and shed some of their niche qualities as they become larger,

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3712-521: Is also common, in countries with important social cleavages along ethnic or racial lines, to represent the interests of one ethnic group or another. This may involve a non-ideological attachment to the interests of that group, or may be a commitment based on an ideology like identity politics . While any of these types of parties may be ideological, there are political parties that do not have any organizing ideology. Political parties are ubiquitous across both democratic and autocratic countries, and there

3828-423: Is also possible – albeit rare – for countries with no bans on political parties, and which have not experienced a major disruption, to nevertheless have no political parties: there are a small number of pacific island democracies, such as Palau , where political parties are permitted to exist and yet parties are not an important part of national politics. In a one-party system , power

3944-495: Is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics , and parties may promote specific ideological or policy goals. Political parties have become a major part of the politics of almost every country, as modern party organizations developed and spread around the world over the last few centuries. Although some countries have no political parties , this is extremely rare. Most countries have several parties while others only have one . Parties are important in

4060-565: Is held entirely by one political party. When only one political party exists, it may be the result of a ban on the formation of any competing political parties, which is a common feature in authoritarian states. For example, the Communist Party of Cuba is the only permitted political party in Cuba , and is the only party that can hold seats in the legislature. When only one powerful party is legally permitted to exist, its membership can grow to contain

4176-407: Is inherited by the child of an outgoing party leader. Autocratic parties use more restrictive selection methods to avoid having major shifts in the regime as a result of successions. In both democratic and non-democratic countries, the party leader is often the foremost member of a larger party leadership. A party executive will commonly include administrative positions, like a party secretary and

4292-408: Is largely insignificant as parties use the resources of the state to maintain their position within the political system. Niche parties are a type of political party that developed on the basis of the emergence of new cleavages and issues in politics, such as immigration and the environment. In contrast to mainstream or catch-all parties, niche parties articulate an often limited set of interests in

4408-501: Is now popularly known as the Gukurahundi Massacres. In 1987, Nkomo was appointed Vice-President, an office he held for twelve years. Mugabe's administration proved controversial, and, as a leader, he has met serious opposition and criticism on the grounds of human rights abuses. Political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections . It

4524-521: Is officially permitted to exist and even to seat members in the legislature, but laws ensure that the Workers' Party of Korea retains control. It is also possible for countries with free elections to have only one party that holds power. These cases are sometimes called dominant-party systems or particracies . Scholars have debated whether or not a country that has never experienced a transfer of power from one party to another can nevertheless be considered

4640-399: Is often very little change in which political parties have a chance of holding power in a country from one election to the next. This makes it possible to think about the political parties in a country as collectively forming one of the country's central political institutions , called a party system. Some basic features of a party system are the number of parties and what sorts of parties are

4756-442: Is reduced as catch-all parties are financed in part by the state or by donations. In Europe, the shift of Christian Democratic parties that were organized around religion into broader centre-right parties epitomizes this type. Cartel parties are a type of political party that emerged post-1970s and are characterized by heavy state financing and the diminished role of ideology as an organizing principle. The cartel party thesis

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4872-432: Is the ideology that is most closely connected to the history of democracies and is often considered to be the dominant or default ideology of governing parties in much of the contemporary world. Many of the traditional competitors to liberal parties are conservative parties. Socialist, communist, feminist, anarchist, fascist, and nationalist parties are more recent developments, largely entering political competitions only in

4988-625: The Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party . By the early 19th century, a number of countries had developed stable modern party systems. The party system that developed in Sweden has been called the world's first party system, on the basis that previous party systems were not fully stable or institutionalized. In many European countries, including Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and France, political parties organized around

5104-595: The Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, and Mugabe became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in April 1980. Joshua Nkomo became the first Minister of Home Affairs in 1980 until ZANU, under the leadership of Mugabe and Tsvangirai(then a Youth Chairperson of ZANU-Jongwe), unleashed violence, and massacred ZAPU members in Matababeland, Midlands, Manicalland,Mashonaland West, Mashonaland East and part of Masvingo Province, in what

5220-737: The Nika riots between two chariot racing factions at the Hippodrome of Constantinople . A few instances of recorded political groups or factions in history included the late Roman Republic's Populares and Optimates factions as well as the Dutch Republic's Orangists and the Staatsgezinde . However, modern political parties are considered to have emerged around the end of the 18th century; they are usually considered to have first appeared in Europe and

5336-764: The Rhodesian Railways African Employees' Association , he was elected President of the Bulawayo -based Southern Rhodesian chapter of the African National Congress (ANC) in 1952. At the time, ANC membership included Knight TT Maripe , Jason Ziyapapa Moyo , Edward Ndlovu , and Francis Nehwati . In September 1956, the United Transport Company scheduled to increase fares to such a level that workers would be spending between 18% and 30% of their income on transportation alone. In response to

5452-564: The Royalist or Cavalier faction of the English Civil War ) supported a strong monarchy, and these two groups structured disputes in the politics of the United Kingdom throughout the 18th century The Rockingham Whigs have been identified as the first modern political party, because they retained a coherent party label and motivating principles even while out of power. At the end of

5568-543: The Second Chimurenga (aka the " Zimbabwe War of Liberation " or "the Rhodesian Bush War" ) began, and both organisations re-emerged with armed wings, Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) and Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). These groups were provided weaponry from communist nations including Soviet Union and then China, and used guerrilla and traditional warfare. The war waged until

5684-659: The Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) to unite with the African National Council of Rev. Abel Muzorewa . Unlike the other leaders, Chikerema remained in exile fearing arrest and imprisonment or execution should he return to Rhodesia. Because of this, when the Rhodesian government agreed to talks in 1975, the venue chosen was a railway carriage on the bridge over the Victoria Falls : the carriage

5800-489: The "Mother of all Splits" because ZANU broke away from several other significant attempts at achieving unity between ZAPU and them; notably the "ZIPA" (1975 and PF(1979–80) accords. Some historians suggest that Ken Flower, a former MI6 agent, was instrumental in the formation of ZANU in the interest of preserving and perpetuating white dominance and imperial agenda over Africans. In 1963, both organisations were banned, but in July 1964,

5916-417: The 19th and 20th centuries. Environmentalism, multiculturalism, and certain types of fundamentalism became prominent towards the end of the 20th century. Parties can sometimes be organized according to their ideology using an economic left–right political spectrum . However, a simple left-right economic axis does not fully capture the variation in party ideologies. Other common axes that are used to compare

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6032-552: The 24 legislators in his party supported his remaining in office. Todd refused to resign, but on 8 February, he was voted out at a United Federal Party congress and replaced by Edgar Whitehead . On 29 February 1959, the Whitehead administration declared a state of emergency and introduced the Unlawful Organizations Act, which banned several organisations including SRANC and allowed government seizure of property. The bill

6148-613: The African National Congress. The ANC campaigned for an extension of the franchise, but was banned within two years of its birth. Together with Joshua Nkomo , Chikerema formed the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress in 1957 to press for meaningful reform. Although not a violent movement, the Southern Rhodesia government banned the group in 1960, and restricted its leading members to

6264-595: The Congress: Until 1958, SRANC found an ally in Prime Minister Garfield Todd , who met with them regularly and attempted to introduce reforms to "advance gradually the rights of the 7,000,000 blacks without upsetting the rule of the 250,000 whites." Under his administration the minimum wage for black workers was raised, restaurants and similar establishments were given the option of being multi-racial, and restrictions on alcohol consumption were relaxed. In

6380-831: The Gokwe area. Chikerema remained with Nkomo when he established the National Democratic Party soon after; when this was also banned, Nkomo and Chikerema launched the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU). When the government banned this group, it remained in existence as a clandestine organisation. The movement restrictions on Nkomo and Chikerema were removed by the incoming government of Winston Field in early 1963. On 9 February 1963 Nkomo and Chikerema together with Maurice Nyagumbo and Daniel Madzimbamuto were arrested while eating supper at Nkomo's house in Rusape under

6496-572: The House of Assembly to split with him due to concerns about his lack of firmness. They formed the Zimbabwe Democratic Party, having to fight through the courts for their right to keep their seats. Following the Lancaster House Agreement , the Zimbabwe Democratic Party stood in the 1980 elections. Chikerema complained about intimidation by ZANU-PF supporters during the campaign, and was distraught when his party failed to win any seats. That marked

6612-529: The Law and Order Maintenance Act 1960, and charged with taking part in an illegal procession and hindering the police. Herbert Chitepo was their defence counsel at trial, but could not prevent them being convicted. Chikerema was sentenced to six months' imprisonment (three months of which were suspended). Their convictions were overturned on appeal. During Nkomo's detention, Chikerema went into exile first in Zambia where he

6728-514: The Patriotic Front formed by Mugabe's ZANU and Nkomo's ZAPU, and accused the United Kingdom of supporting ZAPU. Chikerema participated in the internal settlement talks of 1978 and supported the proposal of reserving 28 seats for white voters in a majority-rule Parliament. In his memoirs, Ian Smith remarks that he was "a constant source of help in bringing things back to sanity". When agreement

6844-728: The Rhodesian government after UDI, and that any troops then sent to Rhodesia would be fought by the ANC. Increasingly, Chikerema grew politically close to Muzorewa. He became the first vice-president of the United African National Council which Muzorewa had founded, and was allowed to return to Rhodesia in September 1977. At a meeting the next month he caused uproar among the white audience by arguing that there were no terrorists in Rhodesia, merely freedom fighters. He became highly critical of

6960-575: The SRANC. By the 1950s, the native peoples of Southern Rhodesia were increasingly dissatisfied with their treatment by the white minority government. In rural areas, the Native Reserves Land were overstocked and in deteriorating condition. In a response to increasing soil erosion, the government introduced the Land Husbandry Act of 1951 . The bill was a failure, and did not take into consideration

7076-547: The Summer of 1957, Todd pushed through a reform that would increase the number of voting Africans from 2% to 16%, much to the dismay of his party. Despite changing international opinion about colonialism, the emergence of independent African states, and the increasing momentum of civil rights movements around the globe in the 1950s and 1960s, the settler government of Southern Rhodesia remained stubbornly resistant to imperial reform. White settlers in Southern Rhodesia were threatened by

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7192-495: The United States of America, with the United Kingdom's Conservative Party and the Democratic Party of the United States both frequently called the world's "oldest continuous political party". Before the development of mass political parties, elections typically featured a much lower level of competition, had small enough polities that direct decision-making was feasible, and held elections that were dominated by individual networks or cliques that could independently propel

7308-599: The arms we capture there, we will attack white homes in the towns". Following UDI , Chikerema took charge of ZAPU's guerrilla war. In 1971 ZAPU split, with Chikerema joining instead the Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe (FROLIZI). After the collapse of talks in Lusaka in December 1974, Chikerema on behalf of FROLIZI signed an agreement with Nkomo of ZAPU and Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole of

7424-405: The base of the volunteer activists and donors who support political parties during campaigns. The extent of participation in party organizations can be affected by a country's political institutions, with certain electoral systems and party systems encouraging higher party membership. Since at least the 1980s, membership in large traditional party organizations has been steadily declining across

7540-619: The beginning of political action towards black majority rule in Southern Rhodesia, and was the original incarnation of the National Democratic Party (NDP); the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU); the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU); and the Zimbabwe African National Union — Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), which has governed Zimbabwe continuously since 1980. Many political figures who later became prominent, including Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo , were members of

7656-424: The black and white populations in hospitals, hotels and schools, and prevented Africans from drinking alcoholic beverages. The Land Apportionment Act of 1930 implemented rigid policy about domestic travel within the country; requiring Blacks to present papers when travelling between areas. The Land Tenure Act of the same year reallocated Africans' land, pushing families out of their homes, and giving better areas to

7772-467: The century, the United States also developed a party system, called the First Party System . Although the framers of the 1787 United States Constitution did not all anticipate that American political disputes would be primarily organized around political parties, political controversies in the early 1790s over the extent of federal government powers saw the emergence of two proto-political parties :

7888-438: The claim that parties emerge from existing cleavages, or arguing that the claim is not empirically testable. Others note that while social cleavages might cause political parties to exist, this obscures the opposite effect: that political parties also cause changes in the underlying social cleavages. A further objection is that, if the explanation for where parties come from is that they emerge from existing social cleavages, then

8004-424: The cognitive burden for people to cast informed votes. However, some evidence suggests that over the last several decades, the strength of party identification has been weakening, so this may be a less important function for parties to provide than it was in the past. Political parties are often structured in similar ways across countries. They typically feature a single party leader, a group of party executives, and

8120-575: The distribution of voters' preferences over political issues, adjusting themselves in response to what voters believe in order to become more competitive. Beginning in the 1960s, academics began identifying the social cleavages in different countries that might have given rise to specific parties, such as religious cleavages in specific countries that may have produced religious parties there. The theory that parties are produced by social cleavages has drawn several criticisms. Some authors have challenged it on empirical grounds, either finding no evidence for

8236-507: The ecological diversity of the land it reallocated. Problems with the Land Husbandry Act could have been rectified to better suit the native population, but it was in the best interests of the settler population to keep people on the reserves poor, thereby maintaining the unequal wealth distribution the settlers so enjoyed. The Bill saw heavy opposition by both rural farmers, and urban workers. Strict segregation in urban areas separated

8352-431: The election of that party's candidates, and legislators in the government who are affiliated with the party. In many countries, the notion of a political party is defined in law, and governments may specify requirements for an organization to legally qualify as a political party. Political parties are distinguished from other political groups or clubs, such as parliamentary groups, because only presidents have control over

8468-622: The electorate. The contributions that citizens give to political parties are often regulated by law, and parties will sometimes govern in a way that favours the people who donate time and money to them. Many political parties are motivated by ideological goals. It is common for democratic elections to feature competitions between liberal , conservative , and socialist parties; other common ideologies of very large political parties include communism , populism , nationalism , and Islamism . Political parties in different countries will often adopt similar colours and symbols to identify themselves with

8584-553: The end of Chikerema's active political career, but he continued to comment through newspaper interviews on the political situation in Zimbabwe. He attained the status of 'elder statesman' and while he was not necessarily in line with the majority view, he was listened to with considerable respect based on his previous campaigns. In 1993, he joined the Forum Party of Zimbabwe, (whose founder was ex-Chief Justice Enoch Dumbutshena ) re-entering

8700-490: The end of the century; for example, around this time the Irish political leader Charles Stewart Parnell implemented several methods and structures like party discipline that would come to be associated with strong grassroots political parties. At the beginning of the 20th century in Europe, the liberal–conservative divide that characterized most party systems was disrupted by the emergence of socialist parties, which attracted

8816-411: The entire party, and some voters decide how to vote in elections partly based on how much they like the leaders of the different parties. The number of people involved in choosing party leaders varies widely across parties and across countries. On one extreme, party leaders might be selected from the entire electorate; on the opposite extreme, they might be selected by just one individual. Selection by

8932-427: The eradication of racism, expanding and de-racializing the education system, free travel for all Rhodesians within the country, the inauguration of democratic systems, and direct participation in the government. By adopting a constitution, they established themselves as the first mass resistance movement in Southern Rhodesia. SRANC was unique in that they rallied support largely from the rural population, and addressed

9048-769: The first political party in Uganda, and its name was chosen as an homage to the Indian National Congress. As broader suffrage rights and eventually universal suffrage slowly spread throughout democracies, political parties expanded dramatically, and only then did a vision develop of political parties as intermediaries between the full public and the government. Political parties are a nearly ubiquitous feature of modern countries. Nearly all democratic countries have strong political parties, and many political scientists consider countries with fewer than two parties to necessarily be autocratic . However, these sources allow that

9164-662: The formation of parties is explicitly banned by law. The existence of political parties may be banned in autocratic countries in order to prevent a turnover in power. For example, in Saudi Arabia , a ban on political parties has been used as a tool for protecting the monarchy. However, parties are also banned in some polities that have long democratic histories, usually in local or regional elections of countries that have strong national party systems. Political parties may also temporarily cease to exist in countries that have either only been established recently, or that have experienced

9280-551: The government. This prevented rural organising, severely limited freedom of speech, and marked the end of nonviolent resistance in Southern Rhodesia. To appease the black elite, Whitehead conceded a few liberal reforms to benefit wealthy, educated, urban Africans. Despite the Whitehead and Smith administrations' attempts to prevent nationalism and resist anti-discrimination reform, the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress re-emerged several times with

9396-477: The grievances of farmers on the reserves. They engaged in house to house, village to village recruiting, and called upon grassroots organising and churches. They held rallies, direct confrontation demonstrations, and canvassed for support internationally. Nkomo successfully suspended the Land Husbandry Act and openly condemned the bill in a public statement saying: The Congress was successful in preventing government interference in traditional marriage customs, and

9512-560: The head of government, the entire party executive may be competing for various positions in the government. For example, in Westminster systems , the largest party that is out of power will form the Official Opposition in parliament, and select a shadow cabinet which (among other functions) provides a signal about which members of the party would hold which positions in the government if the party were to win an election. Citizens in

9628-464: The head of government. In both presidential democracies and parliamentary democracies , the members of a party frequently have substantial input into the selection of party leaders, for example by voting on party leadership at a party conference . Because the leader of a major party is a powerful and visible person, many party leaders are well-known career politicians. Party leaders can be sufficiently prominent that they affect voters' perceptions of

9744-600: The idea of advancing the black majority; the country being reliant largely on exports of cotton and tobacco, their livelihood necessitated access to cheap labour. English settlers to Rhodesia had found a much improved standard of living and great wealth, and they viewed that improving conditions for the native majority was a threat to their new-found luxury. In 1958, after a one-month holiday in South Africa, Todd returned to Southern Rhodesia to discover his cabinet had resigned in protest of his liberal racial policies, and only 14 of

9860-464: The ideologies of political parties include ranges from liberal to authoritarian, from pro-establishment to anti-establishment , and from tolerant and pluralistic (in their behavior while participating in the political arena) to anti-system. Party positions for individual political parties are assessed by different published indices, such as the V-Party Dataset . Though ideologies are central to

9976-518: The introduction of universal suffrage resulted in the creation of worker's parties that later evolved into mass parties; an example is the German Social Democratic Party . These parties represented large groups of citizens who had not previously been represented in political processes, articulating the interests of different groups in society. In contrast to elite parties, mass parties are funded by their members, and rely on and maintain

10092-404: The long run than unaffiliated politicians , so politicians with party affiliations will out-compete politicians without parties. Parties can also align their member's incentives when those members are in a legislature. The existence of a party apparatus can help coalitions of electors to agree on ideal policy choices, whereas a legislature of unaffiliated members might never be able to agree on

10208-448: The merits of every candidate individually. Without political parties, electors would have to individually evaluate every candidate in every election. Parties enable electors to make judgments about just a few groups, and then apply their judgment of the party to its entire slate of candidates. Because it is much easier to become informed about a few parties' platforms than the positions of a multitude of independent candidates, parties reduce

10324-440: The most successful. These properties are closely connected to other major features of the country's politics, such as how democratic it is, what sorts of restrictions its laws impose on political parties, and what type of electoral systems it uses. Even in countries where the number of political parties is not officially constrained by law, political institutions affect how many parties are viable. For example, democracies that use

10440-432: The national membership and leadership. Parties are typically led by a party leader , who serves as the main representative of the party and often has primary responsibility for overseeing the party's policies and strategies. The leader of the party that controls the government usually becomes the head of government , such as the president or prime minister , and the leaders of other parties explicitly compete to become

10556-434: The nineteenth century before the introduction of universal suffrage. The French political scientist Maurice Duverger first distinguished between elite and "mass" parties, founding his distinction on the differences within the organisational structures of these two types. Elite parties are characterized by minimal and loose organisation, and are financed by fewer larger monetary contributions typically originating from outside

10672-453: The number of parties that it has. In the 1950s Maurice Duverger observed that single-member district single-vote plurality-rule elections tend to produce two-party systems, and this phenomenon came to be known as Duverger's law . Whether or not this pattern is true has been heavily debated over the last several decades. Some political scientists have broadened this idea to argue that more restrictive political institutions (of which first past

10788-547: The party. Elite parties give little priority to expanding the party's membership base, and its leaders are its only members. The earliest political parties, such as the Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists , are classified as elite parties. A mass party is a type of political party that developed around cleavages in society and mobilized the ordinary citizens or 'masses' in the political process. In Europe,

10904-586: The policies of Indira Gandhi in the 1970s. The formation of the Indian National Congress , which developed in the late 19th century as a pro-independence faction in British India and immediately became a major political party after Indian independence, foreshadowed the dynamic in many newly independent countries; for example, the Uganda National Congress was a pro-independence party and

11020-465: The political arena; the Forum Party's 25 candidates in the 1995 elections failed to make an impact. The farm he owned was designated for purchase by the Zimbabwe government soon after he formed the party, and in 2000 it was included in the list of farms to be compulsorily purchased without compensation. Chikerema remarked "As far as I'm concerned, it's Mugabe's vendetta against me". Chikerema made it clear that he supported orderly land redistribution if it

11136-475: The political foundations of the party and also they include political factions, or advocacy groups, mostly by the fact that a party is focused on electing candidates, whereas a parliamentary group is a group of political parties, a political faction is a subgroup within a political party, and an advocacy group is focused on advancing a policy agenda. This is related to other features that sometimes distinguish parties from other political organizations, including

11252-443: The politics of autocracies as well as democracies , though usually democracies have more political parties than autocracies. Autocracies often have a single party that governs the country, and some political scientists consider competition between two or more parties to be an essential part of democracy. Parties can develop from existing divisions in society, like the divisions between lower and upper classes , and they streamline

11368-452: The post is one example) tend to produce a smaller number of political parties, so that extremely small parties systems – like those with only two parties – tend to form in countries with very restrictive rules. James Chikerema Chikerema was born at Kutama Mission in Zvimba , in present-day Mashonaland West province; Robert Mugabe , who was his nephew, shared the same birthplace and

11484-578: The price hike, James Chikerema , George Nyandoro , Dudziye Chisiza and Edson Sithole founded the Salisbury based City Youth League (later the African Youth League), and organised a mass boycott that was successful in preventing the price change. On 12 September 1957, the largely dormant ANC and the City Youth League merged to found the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress. The date

11600-497: The process of making political decisions by encouraging their members to cooperate. Political parties usually include a party leader, who has primary responsibility for the activities of the party; party executives, who may select the leader and who perform administrative and organizational tasks; and party members, who may volunteer to help the party, donate money to it, and vote for its candidates. There are many different ways in which political parties can be structured and interact with

11716-530: The same leadership and ideology under different names. Constant repression by the white minority government contributed to the increasing militarisation of these splinter organisations, which culminated in a 15-year war, leading to the internationally acknowledged independence of Zimbabwe in 1980. On 1 January 1960, the National Democratic Party replaced the Southern Rhodesia African National Congress, Chikerema and Nyandoro became members while still detained, and Nkomo came on as president on 28 November 1960. The NDP

11832-403: The shift from the traditional mass parties to catch-all parties as a set of developments including the "drastic reduction of the party's ideological baggage" and the "downgrading of the role of the individual party member". By broadening their central ideologies into more open-ended ones, catch-all parties seek to secure the support of a wider section of the population. Further, the role of members

11948-447: The support of organized trade unions . During the wave of decolonization in the mid-20th century, many newly sovereign countries outside of Europe and North America developed party systems that often emerged from their movements for independence. For example, a system of political parties arose out of factions in the Indian independence movement , and was strengthened and stabilized by

12064-422: The theory is an incomplete story of where political parties come from unless it also explains the origins of these social cleavages. An alternative explanation for why parties are ubiquitous across the world is that the formation of parties provides compatible incentives for candidates and legislators. For example, the existence of political parties might coordinate candidates across geographic districts, so that

12180-711: The two were very close during childhood. He was educated at St. Francis Xavier College in Kutama, and in South Africa. He became President of the Southern Rhodesia National Youth League and in 1956 led a bus boycott by Africans to protest at their lack of political power (the electoral system in Rhodesia made it very difficult for Africans to be eligible). With Didymus Mutasa , George Nyandoro , Guy Clutton-Brock , Michael and Eileen Haddon , white liberals who donated their land, he helped create Cold Comfort Farm to improve African farming methods and then form

12296-589: The types of policies they might pursue if they were in power. Ideologies also differentiate parties from one another, so that voters can select the party that advances the policies that they most prefer. A party may also seek to advance an ideology by convincing voters to adopt its belief system. Common ideologies that can form a central part of the identity of a political party include liberalism , conservatism , socialism , communism , anarchism , fascism , feminism , environmentalism , nationalism , fundamentalism , Islamism , and multiculturalism . Liberalism

12412-546: The white settlers. Despite being a minority, white settlers were allocated 49,100,000 acres (19,900,000 ha), while the black majority received a disproportionately small 21,100,000 acres (8,500,000 ha). Moreover, Blacks were relocated to areas with poor quality soil, endemic malaria , and tsetse fly infestations. In cities, workers had little control over conditions, because trade unions had limited power due to heavy government restrictions. Despite having established only twelve public schools for Black children by 1950,

12528-502: Was acting President of ZAPU. He argued for a referendum of all adults of Southern Rhodesia on whether it should have independence, and opposed the government's use of the House of Chiefs as a means of consulting African opinion. When Ian Smith 's government increasingly threatened a unilateral declaration of independence, Chikerema declared the willingness of ZAPU to take up armed struggle, promising "a campaign of terror" in which "at first we will attack white farms in isolated areas, and with

12644-525: Was an ideologically identical organisation to SRANC, although rural organising was nearly impossible after the Native Affairs Amendment Act . After a few years the NDP was banned, only to be replaced shortly thereafter by ZAPU, which was led by Nkomo, and then ZANU, a splinter group from ZAPU largely on ethnic grounds, which was led by Ndabaningi Sithole , and later Robert Mugabe. The split was dubbed

12760-529: Was defended by the claim that SRANC had incited violence, government defiance, and “undermined [the] prestige of Native Commissioners and the loyalty of African Police," said a security intelligence report. Between 1960 and 1965, 1,610 Africans were prosecuted and 1,002 convicted under this law. The Preventative Detention Act allowed the government to detain several hundred members of SRANC without trial; some members were detained for four years in "shockingly insulting" conditions, while white member Guy Clutton-Brock

12876-419: Was developed by Richard Katz and Peter Mair , who wrote that political parties have turned into "semi-state agencies", acting on behalf of the state rather than groups in society. The term 'cartel' refers to the way in which prominent parties in government make it difficult for new parties to enter, as such forming a cartel of established parties. As with catch-all parties, the role of members in cartel parties

12992-478: Was instrumental in the banning of Depo Provera (a birth control compound), and expressed “deep suspicion... that there is a political motive behind the scheme of birth control.” Commitment to nonviolence, utilisation of civil disobedience , and Pan-Africanism created a likeness between SRANC and the civil rights movement happening at the same time in the United States. Said Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. of

13108-558: Was placed in the middle of the bridge so that the ANC delegation was in Zambia while the Rhodesians were still in Rhodesia. Shortly after the talks the accord within the ANC fell apart with Chikerema siding with Sithole and Muzorewa against Nkomo and Robert Mugabe. In February 1976 Chikerema issued a press statement that the armed struggle was likely to resume, saying that the United Kingdom abdicated responsibility by failing to send troops against

13224-473: Was reached he said that guerrillas who continued fighting after the multi-racial election would be "severely dealt with". During the transitional government, he was made co-Minister for Transport and Power, a surprisingly lowly post given his stature; the apparent snub was explained by the fact that he lacked professional training in any of the areas of government. In July 1978 the Department of Information called

13340-496: Was released in under a month. Nkomo, who was attending a conference in Cairo on his way to London, was not detained; he remained in London organising or on speaking tours to rally support until returning home on 1 October 1960. The Native Affairs Amendment Act went even further to prevent nationalist activities, by banning meetings of 12 or more natives that would "undermine the authority" of

13456-414: Was significant, being the 67th Anniversary of Occupation Day , a holiday celebrated by the white settler population. Having proved himself a strong organiser and powerful negotiator, Joshua Nkomo was inaugurated President. James Chikerema came on as Vice-President, George Nyandaro as Secretary, Ziyapapa Moyo as Vice Secretary, Joseph Msika as Treasurer, and Paul Mushonga as Vice Treasurer. SRANC took on

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