4.4 Understanding the Role of Political Party Systems

Core Country’s Political Party Systems

Now that you can describe the Political Party Systems in each course country, we need to move onto explaining how political party systems and memberships link citizen Participation to policy making. We mentioned in the previous guide the importance of Political Parties for maintaining a healthy democracy, and in this chapter we will analyze it in the context of each course country.

Party systems vary across the course countries in terms of rules governing elections, party structure, and laws regulating political parties. The CED (Course and Exam Description), is very clear regarding examples of rules, party structure, and laws regulating political parties that you should be aware of. Lets get into the countries:

China 🇨🇳: One-Party Rule & Limited Political Participation

• The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls the government, military, and policymaking.
• Although small minority parties exist, they must accept CCP leadership, making China a one-party state.

How Do Citizens Participate?

✅ Citizens can join the CCP and rise through its ranks to influence policymaking.

❌ No direct national elections—the CCP selects the president.

❌ Opposition is not tolerated, and the party silences dissenting voices.

🔹 Key Trend: Since 2012, power has become more centralized under the President, moving away from collective decision-making.

Iran 🇮🇷: Theocratic Control Over Political Parties

• No formal political party structures—instead, Iran has loose political alliances.
• While the 1979 Constitution recognizes Freedom of Association, parties cannot challenge Islamic Republic principles.
• The Parties Law (1981) requires parties to get permits from the Interior Ministry, which can dissolve any party that violates Islamic law.

How Do Citizens Participate?

✅ People can join government-approved political alliances.

❌ No real opposition parties—only those aligned with the Supreme Leader are allowed.

❌ Parties must be vetted and approved, limiting diverse political voices.

🔹 Key Trend: Iran has multiple parties in structure, but in function, they operate as an extension of the theocratic regime.

Mexico 🇲🇽: Multi-Party System & Increasing Democracy

• Unlike China and Iran, Mexico has a competitive multi-party system.
• Three dominant parties:
  • PAN (National Action Party)
  • PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution)
  • PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party)

How Do Citizens Participate?

✅ Multi-party elections allow real competition.

✅ Opposition parties can form coalitions to influence policymaking.

✅ Power has shifted between parties, showing progress in democratization.

🔹 Key Trend: Mexico has moved from an authoritarian system to a more democratic system, where citizens influence policy through elections.

Nigeria 🇳🇬: Multi-Party System with Ethnic Quotas

• 1999 Constitution established a multi-party system and the INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission).
• INEC oversees elections and political parties to prevent presidential control over them.

How Do Citizens Participate?

✅ 91 political parties (as of 2019) allow for ethnic and regional representation.

✅ INEC is gaining independence, improving electoral fairness.

❌ Political party de-registration (2019) eliminated 74 parties, limiting voter choices.

❌ High costs to run for office exclude lower-income citizens.

🔹 Key Trend: Nigeria is democratizing, but challenges remain due to financial barriers and party de-registration.

Russia 🇷🇺: Dominant Party System Disguised as Multi-Party

• Technically a multi-party system, but United Russia dominates.
• Smaller parties exist but lack real influence due to election rules favoring United Russia.

How Do Citizens Participate?

✅ Opposition parties exist but struggle to gain representation.

❌ United Russia dominates with 340 out of 450 seats in the State Duma.

❌ Threshold rules & election changes keep minority parties weak.

🔹 Key Trend: Russia has a one-party system in practice, where opposition parties exist but cannot effectively challenge the ruling party.

United Kingdom 🇬🇧: Competitive Multi-Party Democracy

• Two dominant parties:
  • Labour Party
  • Conservative Party
• Minor parties gain seats through single-member districts in plurality elections.

How Do Citizens Participate?

✅ Free & fair elections allow party competition.

✅ Referendums (e.g., Brexit) give citizens a direct voice in policymaking.

❌ Plurality system makes it hard for smaller parties to gain power.

🔹 Key Trend: The UK is a procedural democracy, where citizens influence policymaking through elections and referendums.

Political participation depends on regime type:

| China 🇨🇳 | One-Party State | Citizens have no direct elections, must join CCP to have influence. | | Iran 🇮🇷 | Theocracy | Parties exist but must follow Islamic law, limited political opposition. | | Mexico 🇲🇽 | Multi-Party Democracy | Citizens have competitive elections & influence policymaking. | | Nigeria 🇳🇬 | Multi-Party Democracy | Elections exist but high financial barriers limit participation. | | Russia 🇷🇺 | Dominant-Party System | United Russia controls elections, opposition is weak. | | UK 🇬🇧 | Multi-Party Democracy | Citizens influence policy through elections & referendums. |

💡 Key Concept: Multi-party systems do not always function the same way!

• Mexico, the UK, and Nigeria allow for true competition in elections.
• Russia and Iran are technically multi-party but function like one-party states.
• China is a pure one-party system, meaning political participation is state-controlled.

Coalitions are groups of political parties that join together to form a government. There are usually negotiations and concessions involved in the process of forming a coalition. They can happen for a variety of reasons, such as to facilitate certain candidates to win or to create a united front against a common opposition. They can be permanent or temporary. 🕧

Coalitions are groups of political parties that join together to form a government. There are usually negotiations and concessions involved in the process of forming a coalition. They can happen for a variety of reasons, such as to facilitate certain candidates to win or to create a united front against a common opposition. They can be permanent or temporary. 🕧

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Greater Overview

Before we close out this topic, let us quickly review what we have learned. The structure and function of political parties varies greatly among our course countries. The factor that impacts structure and function most significantly is regime type. Let's go through an example to help make this more clear. Mexico, the UK, Nigeria, Russia, and Iran all are multi-party systems. While they have the same political party structure, their function is extremely different.

In Mexico, the UK, and Nigeria, coalitions can be formed to give more voice to minority groups, and political parties all have a chance to win elections at a national level and, therefore, provide a voice for a multitude of individuals who are a part of those parties. Compare that to Russia and Iran, which are both multi-party systems in structure, but in function, they are more aligned with one-party systems in that the parties that are formed must be vetted by the majority parties in control (United Russia) or individuals in control (Supreme Leader-Iran).

Furthermore, the opportunity to affect politics is limited. In Russia, for example, United Russia controls 350 of 450 seats in the State Duma (directly elected legislature) and the minority parties have no voice in policymaking. This means the voices heard in policymaking decisions only belong to the majority party, United Russia.

Core Countries and Parties:

| UK 🇬🇧 | Consolidated Democracy | Multi-Party | The multi-party system allows for a multitude of voices to be heard, and political parties play an important democratic role. However, it is important to keep in mind that there are two dominating parties in the UK: Liberals and Conservatives. This means that there are only two groups that have almost completely taken over the government and become essential in UK politics. | | China 🇨🇳 | Authoritarian | One-Party | The CPC in China works basically to control and structure the government. This one-party system emphasizes one uniform ideology throughout the country, and limits access to these political process by inhibiting direct voting and suppressing all opposition. | | Mexico 🇲🇽 | Illiberal Democracy | Multi-Party (used to be one-party system until 1997) | The political parties in the country are organized around a federal system (with national, regional and local levels). The multi-party system works to promote diversity of viewpoints and strengthen their democracy, that was once dominated by PRI only. The possibility of forming coalitions can also democratically help candidates in certain elections. | | Iran 🇮🇷 | Authoritarian | One-party | Due to the lack of structure in Iran's one-party dominance system, political parties end up becoming a loose link between political allies. There is little to no accountability to constituents and the political parties do not seem to respond directly to them. | | Nigeria 🇳🇬 | Illiberal Democracy | Multi-party | In the previous unit we discussed the significance of Nigeria's social cleavages. The political parties in Nigeria play an important role in representing the different ethnicities across the country, especially with the presence of ethnic quotas in the national legislature. | | Russia 🇷🇺 | Authoritarian | One-party | The dominance of the United Russia's party has decreased the representation of other parties and minority groups. The party has had control of the Duma (the lower chamber of the legislative) since 1999, and rules that reinstate the single-party district have benefitted the dominant party. Therefore, it is possible to say that the party system in Russia serves to establish a monopoly and consequently suppress opposition, and not attend the needs of the people. |

In the next guide we will discuss the importance of social movements and Interest groups in our course countries! ➡️