If you ask me, party politics is an evil that has perverted and distorted the democratic process, across the world, while providing little more than an illusion of power to the people. Political parties claim to serve the people and the nation but, in truth, serve themselves first and foremost and, as a result, little real progress and much wrongdoing are the usual end products. I am not saying that nothing of good comes from the work of the various political parties, because occasionally they get it right, but, without a doubt, the overall product of the rule of political parties is excessive wastage of public funds, mismanagement of government functions, poorly formulated legislation and the forced imposition of political theories and ideals on the people and the political process.
All of us have grown up in a world dominated by political parties. It doesn’t matter whether you live in a modern ‘developed’ country or a third-world country, it doesn’t matter if you live in a so-called democracy or you live in a country run by a tyrant or autocracy, or a single-state party or a military Junta. Almost universally, the government is run under the auspices of a political party and political and financial power is squabbled over by one or more of these parties.
Do these parties do a good job of running the country? Do the members of these parties inspire admiration or loyalty because they are doing the job well, to the best of their abilities, and because the result of their term in power has been universally beneficial to the people and the nation? Around the world, the answer to these questions is almost always a resounding no, because political parties rarely, if ever, leave a lasting and worthwhile legacy for the nation. This is because the loyalty of individual politicians is divided between their membership of their political party and their constituents who gave them their vote at the last election. In this contest between party and people, the political party usually wins because it calls the loyalty of its’ members into question every single day while the people only get to question their loyalty every couple of years when an election is called.
How much of the daily work effort , of political parties, is spent in producing the best result for the people and how much is spent on trying to get an upper hand on their political enemies? How much money is wasted when a political party gains power and then goes about dismantling the policies, laws and efforts of their preceding, political enemies – simply because they are contrary to their policies? The wastage, in this regard, would be staggering to calculate.
Quote by George Washington in regards to the despotism of party politics which, is indeed, a form of evil.
However, why do we have political parties? Have we always had political parties and when and where did they originate?
(To be continued)