Political party organizations essay examples

The five types of political party organizations are; the machine, the solidarity groups, ideological parties, sponsored parties, and the personal following organizations. The machine is a political party which recruits members through the utilization of tangible incentives at its disposal. The leaders have a strong control on the party as far as member activity is concerned. Ideological parties are those that value principle over everything else. They are considered the opposite of ideological parties. Solidarity groups, on the other hand, involve groups that participate political activities because is fun to them. Some of these groups are brought together because the members like spending time with people. Sponsored parties, on the other hand, are those that are created and, or even sponsored by another organization. Lastly, personal followings are those that require specific appealing personalities or figures, name, an extensive network, recognition and even money. They are built around specific individuals.
According to these definitions, therefore, ideological parties are the best in terms of those parties that can introduce, or allow political reforms. This is because they are built around principles; and not enjoyment, incentives, or a person’s influence on the people. As such, ideological parties can assemble a considerable amount of influence and power to form a government based on the policies and philosophies it requires its members to abide by. They also lead in terms of other criteria such as avoiding corruption, inducing people to participate in them, giving people choices of policy, and rejuvenating political processes. Next in line, after ideological parties is the machine, then sponsored parties, personal following and lastly solidarity groups.
The machine can be effective in weak economies because its selling point is the incentives it offers members. Its disadvantage is that this practice cannot be sustained through time. At some point, people will no longer be attracted to the incentives. Ideological parties, while offering a lot in comparison to the other parties, are not flexible, have a lot of internal conflicts; but if these can be handled, they are the best parties. Solidarity groups have the advantage of flexibility, and lack corruption. However, they have a disadvantage of the lack of drive for hard work. Sponsored parties, on the other hand, are few, but if possible, can be formidable. Lastly, personal followings are effective if the individual is popular, and has a personality that voters can identify with; but the lack of ideologies that voters can identify with can be detrimental because there will be no scale of measuring a person’s electability.

References

The Social Studies Help Center. (2013, August 4). Political Parties. Retrieved August 4, 2013, from The Social Studies Help Center: http://www. socialstudieshelp. com/APGOV_Political_Parties. htm
Wilson, J. Q., & Dilulio, J. J. (2009). American Government. Stamford: Cengage Learning.