Political Participation

There are three most important components of politics namely- political party, interest groups, and social movements. . An organization or group of people working together to gain political power is called political party. People which have common motive or interest , get together for influencing political process is called interest group. “An informal network of activists who seek to transform the values of the society is called social movement .”(An introduction to political science edited by RAND DYCK page 337). Considering the importance of political participation in the political arena although these components are imperfect but they still have a lot of role to be played in the political arena . “Political parties are one of the fundamental elements in contemporary liberal democracies. The place that they occupy is itself a consequence of the very concept of democracy, founded upon the pluralism of interests, the unanimous rejection of single party system, and political competition in choosing of the leaders and policies. But over and above that fundamental and crucial choice, western political parties appear to be playing an increasingly important role as consequence of functions that they assume in the life of liberal political societies. It is fair to say, without exaggeration, that the political parties control the political process from the raising of political consciousness to the elaboration of policies and their implementation. Admittedly, the political parties are by no means the only agents involved ( not only is the party system pluralistic ,but the parties themselves hold no monopoly over the exercise of some of their functions), and their role, furthermore, varies from one country to another. But they are usually the essential agents in political life.” (government and politics in western Europe by YVES MENY page 79) “Like political parties , interest groups play a vital role in making public