{"id":30436,"date":"2024-10-05T19:19:41","date_gmt":"2024-10-05T13:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=30436"},"modified":"2024-10-05T19:19:43","modified_gmt":"2024-10-05T13:49:43","slug":"internal-democracy-in-political-parties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/05-10-2024\/internal-democracy-in-political-parties","title":{"rendered":"Internal Democracy in Political Parties"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Polity and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>India&#8217;s multi-party democracy frequently centers around individual charisma, raising the question of whether the Election Commission can ensure internal democracy within political parties.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Internal democracy<\/strong> in political parties refers to the practice of democratic principles and procedures within the organizational structure and functioning of political parties.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It involves the inclusion of all party members in <strong>decision-making processes, leadership selection, policy formulation, and ensuring accountability<\/strong> of party leadership to its members.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Reasons for lack of internal democracy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Weak Organizational Structures: <\/strong>Many parties lack transparent processes for selecting leaders, allowing centralization of control.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Dynastic politics: <\/strong>Leadership is controlled by a few individuals or families, limiting opportunities for new talent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Limited Participation of Members:<\/strong> Intra-party elections are merely symbolic. leading to disillusionment and disengagement among the grassroots members.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Need for the internal democracy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Nurturing a culture of democracy:<\/strong> Parties with strong internal democratic mechanisms are more likely to uphold democratic values when in power, ensuring transparency, accountability, and responsiveness.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Leadership Development: <\/strong>Democratically structured parties encourage competition and meritocracy, allowing younger and more capable leaders to rise through the ranks.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Empowering Grassroots Members:<\/strong> Internal democracy ensures that the voices of party workers and ordinary members are heard in decision-making processes.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Election commission\u2019s guidelines<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Representation of the People Act:<\/strong> ECI has periodically used guidelines issued for registration of parties under <strong>Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 <\/strong>to remind parties to conduct elections and to ensure that their leadership is renewed, changed or re-elected every five years.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>No Permanent President for a Party: <\/strong>ECI has opposed the concept of a &#8216;permanent president&#8217; within political parties, as it undermines the principle of leadership change and fair representation within parties.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Party constitution: <\/strong>The EC\u2019s guidelines for parties applying for registration under the Act state that the applicant should submit a copy of the party constitution.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Concerns<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>De-Registration Only in Cases of Fraud:<\/strong> The Supreme court in 2002 ruled that While the Election Commission has the authority to register political parties, it can only deregister a party under limited circumstances.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Power of de-registration of political parties:<\/strong> ECI has asked the Law Ministry for the power to deregister political parties in the past, but the proposal has not been implemented so far.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Ensuring internal democracy within political parties is critical to enhancing the overall democratic fabric of the country.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>While the Election Commission has taken steps in this direction, its powers are limited. There is a need for comprehensive reform, perhaps through legislation, to empower the Election Commission to enforce internal democracy more effectively.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Election Commission India<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>It was established<\/strong> in accordance with the Constitution on <strong>25th January 1950<\/strong>.<br>&#8211; <strong>Its powers, appointment and duties<\/strong> are mentioned in <strong>Part XV of the Constitution (Article 324 to Article 329)<\/strong>.\u00a0<br>1. Additionally, its role is further elaborated under the <strong>Representation of the People Act, 1950 <\/strong>and <strong>Representation of the People Act, 1951.<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Responsibility:<\/strong> The body administers elections to the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies, State Legislative Councils and the offices of the President and Vice President of the country.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/should-election-commission-ensure-internal-democracy-in-political-parties\/article68714215.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India&#8217;s multi-party democracy frequently centers around individual charisma, raising the question of whether the Election Commission can ensure internal democracy within political parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30436"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30437,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30436\/revisions\/30437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}