Talk:Political party

Removed Bahai references
I removed the following for PoV:
 * [Nonpartisan systems...], an important model of which is found in the practice of Baha'i administration.

Baha'i administration appears to be "important" only to those with an intense interest in Bahai. Googling
 * "Bahá'í administration"
 * "Bahai administration"

and
 * "Baha'i administration"

produce 6,040, 789, and 5,120 raw hits respectively. The majority of these hits are for the difficult correct spelling with special characters, reflecting the topic's interest to those with sufficient interest in Bahá'í to be invested in showing extraordinary respect for that spelling. The URLs and page titles, except on WP and in cases where explicitly Bahá'í-written texts have been included among other e-texts, reflect Bahá'í-specific groups of pages. The claim that a relatively small religion has made an "important" contribution to political and social theory is an extraordinary claim, and taking it seriously will require extraordinary evidence that academic political scientists and sociologists consider the contribution important, and that notable organizations verifiably not dominated by Bahá'ís say that it has been important to them to have adopted the approach from Bahá'í or from sources that are verifiably derived from the Bahá'í methods. --Jerzy•t 04:50, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

registration cards
what does UNA mean on a registration card & does it mean they can vote for anyone in the primary &the general election —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.207.230.228 (talk) 17:28, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

What about the history of the formation of political parties?
I think it should be needed to put in this article.--MaGioZal (talk) 15:37, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

anarchist
hey there -i'm curious if people believe anarchists form political parties. i know it may sound contradictory on the surface, but i'm hoping so can answer this question in a technical sense. Teetotaler 5 April 2009

Move
Political party → Civil government political party &mdash; This article deals only with political parties in civil government, not in politics (eg religiuos politics, ...) as a whole. User:91.176.13.181 13:40, 2 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Please discuss this multiple page move request here. Jafeluv (talk) 02:39, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Move discussion in process
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Politician which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. RFC&#32;bot (talk) 01:00, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

to anybody fighting the goverment in iran why dont you paint your hands red and leave a print of it on iranian goverment buildings this is a peaceful way of showing your contempt for the present goverment in iran and the bloodshed their causing leaveing a message that will grow and grow causing embarrisment to the goverment and allowing people who are affraid to speak out a voice! with western jounalist printing the pictures to show the massive conept for the currant situation —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.254.49.14 (talk) 05:51, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Dubious
I dispute "Political change is often easier with a coalition government than in one-party or two-party dominant systems." The opposite case is more often made, in the context of plurality vs proportional systems: that a complete change of governing party affords opportunity for sweeping change, whereas an incoming coalition will likely negotiate a compromise programme similar to the outgoing coalition (especially if some parties are in both). jnestorius(talk) 01:39, 12 June 2010 (UTC)

"Partisan style" section is completely missing information about true multi-party systems
The "partisan style" section currently has the following subsections: There is no actual mention at all about true multi-party systems where actual executive power is shared pretty much equally among more than two major parties. This system is actually used in at least Finland, Sweden, and Germany. It is, however, not used in either the United States or the United Kingdom which are, in effect, two-party systems (Democrats vs Republicans in the USA, Labours vs Tories in the UK), but this is not the "American and British" Wikipedia, this is the Wikipedia in the English language, and so it should cover all aspects of the world. J I P &#124; Talk 19:43, 19 April 2011 (UTC)
 * Non-partisan - the entire concept of parties doesn't exist
 * One-party system - only one party is allowed to hold power
 * Two-party system - two strong parties hold all actual executive power
 * Multi-party system - two strong parties hold almost all actual executive powers, but there might be a few minority parties holding a small share of it

Questionable Citation Justification for "Balanced Voting multiple-party systems" Section
The page claims that "Extensive studies including simulations and polls[4] by Donald Arthur Kronos, have shown." I was surprised when I followed the citation link to an online blog page with an internet poll. While I find the topic of interest, I don't think this paragraph is anything more than somebody's blog opinion. If there is legitimate research which reveals the effectiveness of this style of voting, then I think it should be discussed on this page, but as it stands, I think this entire section should be deleted. Here is the link for those who'd like to take a look: http://sodahead.com/blog/6690/ Jwhester (talk) 12:25, 18 May 2011 (UTC)

Curvilinear Disparity
I am looking for suitable places to introduce links to an article on curvilinear disparity. I helped create the article but it is currently an orphan. Curvilinear disparity is a political theory proposed by the English political scientist John D May, which posits that in catch-all or mass parties, rank-and-file members of the party are more ideologically driven that the party's leadership or its voters. It is an idea that is commonplace in the media and political commentaries, although May himself is rarely cited. For example, the British media often talk about "old Labour" members being more ideological than other members. Likewise, the US media often talks about the Republican or Democratic "bases" needing to be placated by the party leaderships (because they are more ideologically charged than the "independent" Republicans or Democrats). Would it be too much of a stretch to introduce a link in the "Types of Parties" section? Perhaps just one sentence after mass parties are mentioned. getoffmycloud 13:37, 17 August 2012 (UTC)

Clarifying scope of article (see edit 11th April 2014)
The international 'actual' and 'cultural' differences between the operation and recognition of "political parties" is a very interesting topic for the general reader. We tend to more or less 'know' our own system. but our understanding of (for example) USA depends on whether we have watched "The West Wing" (and relies on this being a reasonably accurate representation). A political party operates within a political system, and, IMO, can't be sensibly discussed outwith a discussion of that system. There is much talk at the moment on the BBC World Service about the Indian Election, and it is clear that political parties there need to be understood differently from the UK, USA, France, Germany etc. Yours Boldly (and constructively) an IP editor       86.17.152.168 (talk) 10:40, 11 April 2014 (UTC) In anticipation of a reply from Psychonaut, WP says that a lead article is required to 'define the topic'. This is not the same as defining "political party". The topic appears to be an examination of the notion of a political party, as it manifests itself internationally, and cross-culturally. This is what I have tried to summarise (although I have introduced some elements that signal my expectation that there may be disagreement). If the topic is intended to be restricted culturally and/or geographically, it needs to say so in the article title, IMO.
 * "Political party" is a compund noun, which could appear in a dictionary, and could be defined. But Wikipedia is NOT a dictionary. Here, "Political party" is the NAME (or Title) of the article, and the purpose of the introduction is to define/refine/clarify the notable topic that the NAME denotes. By all means improve the current offering, but do not (please) revert to a dictionary-type definition. regards, redalasdair

Membership and dues
In some political party systems around the world, there is a formal membership process, and members have to pay dues. Those dues are used, in part, to finance electoral campaigns.

In the two major US political parties, membership is signaled through voter registration, and as far as I know doesn't require any dues paying. The Democratic National Committee FAQ says of the Democratic Party, "Membership in the Party is open to anyone who is registered to vote as a Democrat or who generally votes for Democratic candidates or who identifies with the Democratic Party."

Is there a clear distinction between these two styles of political party systems? Are they named? Is the US unique, or are there other countries that have this looser style of membership? --ESP (talk) 15:50, 28 March 2019 (UTC)

Types of parties
The ‘Types’ section includes relevant information and is a good start, but it still needs a lot of expanding. There is no mention of ‘catch-all’ or ‘cartel’ parties, and the information about cadre and mass parties is limited and short. I plan to create new subheadings for each of these four types of parties and provide more detailed definitions and overviews of each of them, along with examples and with mention of historical context. Eannina1 (talk) 12:49, 17 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Good idea, I look forward to reading your contribution! - Astrophobe  (talk) 17:23, 17 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Feedback on purposed improvements


 * Very well noticed that this section of the article does not mention cartel and catch-all parties, I too believe that you could create a subheading for each particular party as there is a lot that could be potentially written. You could go in which of the parties are policy, vote or office seeking. And maybe link some of the parties to the literature we have read on responsibility and responsiveness?


 * The protest party is another, more recent, party you may have missed or have not decided to include. It might be a concept you want to explore. These parties emerge out of a protest vote, it is from what I am aware of a new development in the party typology and would ad some modern relevance to your article. WikiNicholasUvA (talk) 19:07, 8 May 2020 (UTC)


 * Yes agreed that there can be a lot more included under the Types section! If I'm not mistaken what Nicholas is referring to is also often termed niche parties in political science literature, so you could maybe use this to search for additional references. Marciojoseph (talk) 20:02, 10 May 2020 (UTC)


 * I think creating subheadings and further explanations for the cadre, mass, catch-all and cartel parties are great contributions! I agree with the two comments above that including protest parties/niche parties as a type of party makes for an interesting addition as well. You are probably planning on doing this already, but I would list the parties in the order of their evolution, so starting with the cadre party, then the mass party, the catch-all party, the cartel party and finally the “niche party” (if you want to include it). Maybe you could also create an overview of the main differences between the types of parties in the form of a table. --BlueSofa (talk) 11:07, 12 May 2020 (UTC)


 * I really like the improvements that you have made to the 'Types' section. It is very clear and well-referenced. The only small thing I would possibly change is the paragraph on 'Catch-all parties'. Under this subheading the definition of 'catch-all parties' is given somewhere in the middle of the paragraph in contrast to the other types of political parties, where the definition is given in the first sentence under each subheading. PokingNicolas (talk) 15:46, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Bahujan Lok Dal
It is a political party in bihar its National President is md targheeb alam ansari Bldparty (talk) 15:41, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

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The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 09:34, 30 June 2021 (UTC)
 * ALIANZA COMUNIDAD CIUDADANA.jpg

Party structure material
The following text was added in these 38 edits without any citations. After it was tagged as uncited here, I removed it on the grounds of WP:V, but in the spirit of WP:BRD I'm inviting discussion about what can be cited and added to the page. For my part, though, I'll say I certainly don't think this should be a new section, because the section on party structure is already about exactly this sort of thing. In my opinion whatever is new and verifiable here should just be added to that existing section, with citations. - Astrophobe  (talk) 18:08, 8 October 2021 (UTC)

When employee of a political party is alloted to work directly for that political party
Spokesperson

A spokesperson, spokesman, or spokeswoman, is someone employed to speak on behalf of the political party. Spokesperson is the senior most employee of any political party.

Campaign Advisor

A campaign advisor is a upper level employee whose role is to direct the campaign managers and campaign coordinator of a political party to manage the political campaign's operations such as fundraising, advertising, polling, getting out the vote (with direct contact to the public), and other activities.

Campaign Manager

A campaign manager is a upper mid level employee whose role is to coordinate a political campaign's operations such as fundraising, advertising, polling, getting out the vote (with direct contact to the public), and other activities supporting the effort, directly.

Campaign Coordinator

The Campaign Coordinator is a mid level employee and focuses on the "on-the-ground" organizing that is required in order to personally contact voters through canvassing, phone calls, and building local events.

Psephologist Psephologist performs a "quantitative analysis of elections and balloting. As such, psephologist attempts to explain elections using the scientific method. Psephologist also performs political forecasting. Media Manager (Communications and Public Relations)

The media manager oversees both the press relations and advertising involved in promoting the campaign in the media.They are responsible for the campaign's message and image among the electorate. Press releases, advertisements, phone scripts, and other forms of communication must be approved by this department before they can be released to the public.

Media Coordinator (Communications and Public Relations)

The media coordinator assists media manager in overseeing both the press relations and advertising involved in promoting the campaign in the media.They are responsible for the campaign's message and image among the electorate. Press releases, advertisements, phone scripts, and other forms of communication must be approved by the media manager before they can be released to the public.

Scheduling and Advance Manager (Programme)

The scheduling and advance manager makes sure that the candidate and campaign surrogates are effectively scheduled so as to maximize their influence on voters. Scheduling and Advance Manager also oversees the advance people who arrive at events before the candidate to make sure everything is in order.

Scheduling and Advance Coordinator (Programme)

The scheduling and advance  coordinator assists the scheduling and advance manager to make sure that the candidate and campaign surrogates are effectively scheduled so as to maximize their influence on voters.

Fund Raising Manager (Accounting and Finance)

The fund raising manager administers the campaign's fundraising operation and ensures that the campaign always has the money it needs to operate effectively. The techniques employed by this manager vary based on the campaign's needs and size. Small campaigns often involve casual fundraising events and phone calls from the candidate to donors asking for money. Larger campaigns will include everything from high-priced sit-down dinners to e-mail messages to donors asking for money.

Fund Raising Coordinator (Accounting and Finance)

The fund raising coordinator coordinates the campaign's fundraising operation and ensures that the campaign always has the money it needs to operate effectively.

Field Manager (Human Resources and Operations) 

The field manager focuses on the "on-the-ground" organizing that is required in order to personally contact voters through canvassing, phone calls, and building local events. Voter contact helps construct and clean the campaign's voter file in order to help better target voter persuasion and identify which voters a campaign most wants to bring out on election day.

Field Coordinator (Human Resources and Operations)

The field coordinator assists the field manager in focusing on the "on-the-ground" organizing that is required in order to personally contact voters through canvassing, phone calls, and building local events. Voter contact helps construct and clean the campaign's voter file in order to help better target voter persuasion and identify which voters a campaign most wants to bring out on election day.

Office Administrator

Researching and developing a set of policies requires a large team of office administrators to do the research and write each plank. Office Administrators also provide information to the campaign on issues and the backgrounds of candidates (including the candidate they work for) in order to be aware of skeletons in the various candidates' closets. The latter practice is known as opposition research.

When employee of a political party is alloted to work for the elected representative of that political party
Executive Secratary cum System Analyst to the Member of Parliament/Member of Senate/Member of Congress

An executive secratary cum system analyst is a salaried employee of the political party alloted to assist the Member of Parliament/Member of Senate/Member of Congress with their duties. This is the senior most position where the employee of a political party is alloted to work for any federal elected representative of that political party.

Executive Assistant cum Database Administrator to the Member of Legislative Assembly/Member of Legislative Council

An executive assistant cum database administrator is a salaried employee of the political party alloted to assist the Member of Legislative Assembly/Member of Legislative Council with their duties. This is the junior most position where the employee of a political party is alloted to work for any provincial elected representative of that political party.

"List of banned political parties" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect List of banned political parties and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 April 18 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. TartarTorte 14:06, 18 April 2022 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion: You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 11:01, 10 July 2022 (UTC)
 * Logo of the United Party of National Development (Zambia).jpg

Images with unreliable information
The two images in the section "Party positions and ideologies" present original research and point of view that I think goes beyond what is permitted on Wikipedia. Both images present unsourced models of political ideology that appear to be based on the opinions of the image creators. The map claims to show "identification from international recognition or self-proclaimed party ideology" but provides no sources for these identifications and appears to be the author's opinion of what they might be. Similarly, the one-axis spectrum image does not show an agreed upon model, and it raises issues of where these ideologies should fall and how they compare to one another (the inclusion of socialism as a separate ideology to the right of communism in particular seems tenuous and unsupported). I'd like to remove both of these images from the article. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 20:37, 24 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I have thought the same thing, but was hesitant to act on or mention it, for fear of falling into an ownership bias after working on this page a lot. I would support removing these images as being uncited and therefore failing basic content policies like WP:V. - Astrophobe  (talk) 21:52, 24 August 2022 (UTC)
 * In particular the images I'm talking about are File:Democracy claims.svg and File:Political Ideology - Wiki.png. In contrast, File:2022 Freedom in the World.png needs to be cited, but it's obvious that it's not original research, and it's clear what work it's referring to (as is it comes close to parenthetical referencing, but that's been deprecated, and anyhow the source needs to be in the References section). So I think the correct approach would be to remove the former two as simply being original research, and to cite the third one. Though I think there is also also a conversation to have about whether Freedom House ratings are relevant to the topic of political parties. - Astrophobe  (talk) 22:00, 24 August 2022 (UTC)
 * I agree. In my opinion, File:Political Ideology - Wiki.png, File:Conventional political spectrum.svg, and File:Democracy claims.svg probably shouldn't be on Wikipedia at all. File:2022 Freedom in the World.png would be fine with a citation, but like you said, I'm skeptical of whether it's applicable to this article. And since we're talking about images, I'll add that File:Donkey and elephant - democrat blue and republican red - polygon rough.jpg sticks out as a low quality image. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 00:16, 25 August 2022 (UTC)
 * Agree on all counts. I encourage you to be bold and make those changes. - Astrophobe  (talk) 02:59, 25 August 2022 (UTC)

First sentence
This is a narrowed definition of a political party. There are countries through history which have not held regular elections through some periods, but the ruling party in these cases would still be considered a political party. A3f148b10d57987f (talk) 12:19, 26 August 2022 (UTC)
 * There are almost no countries where elections do not occur and yet politics is organized according to groups that the balance of reliable sources would consider to be a modern political party. It's a fair point that there are many one-party systems in which the main purpose of the party that controls the state is not to organize candidates to contest elections, but on Wikipedia the relevant guideline here is MOS:LEAD and specifically MOS:FIRST/MOS:INTRO, and the goal is not to propose an original or completely flawless definition but rather to offer a simple summary of the contents of the page. "Parties coordinate candidates in elections" is a reasonable summary of what reliable sources say a political party is, and it is a fair attempt to summarize the core commonality of, say, the U.S. Marijuana Party and the Chinese Communist Party. Those two organizations don't have a lot in common, but one trait they share is that they coordinate candidates to compete in their country's elections. - Astrophobe  (talk) 21:47, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

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Existence of parties not foreseen in the constitution
It strikes me that parties are hardly mentioned in written state constitutions across the world. The existence of parties is tolerated in democracies, but not considered essential. Generally in constitutions, an elected parliamentary member is expected to represent his or her geographical district, and not any particular party or faction. I would be grateful if an expert editor could make this clear in the introduction, with a suitable reference. 37.5.242.32 (talk) 19:34, 25 June 2024 (UTC)