Authors: Hermet, Badie, Birnbaum & Braud
Summary: In this 295-words entry the author gives a definition of the concept, focuses on the functions of parties and stresses the well known Duverger's classification.
Political parties are stable, organized groups whose members share the same political idea, the same plan or the same set of interests. In representative democracies they normally wield power by means of free, competitive elections. However, history provided some exceptions: extra-parliamentary parties and unique parties in totalitarian regimes.
Among their functions, the authors recall recruitment of political personnel, political socialization and communication, interests aggregation, elaboration of alternative programs beside, in some cases, the defence of the excluded and of minorities.
The best known classification of parties is Duverger's. After a first distinction of cadre parties from mass parties, he advanced a more complex typology on the basis of the following variables: type of formal structure, of internal relationships, of power management (diffusion vs. concentration) and, lastly, type of adhesion to the party (hence the classification in mass parties, cadre parties, indirect parties and totalitarian parties). Other scholars have contributed to the first classification adding the presidential party, notables' party, electors' party, catch-all party and the populist party.