12. Think Before You Ink

From Whom to Die For? by Heysham McKinson (Suggested Reading, Party Politics, Paper I – Political Systems and Parties)

When one has set upon himself the task of joining politics, it is but of profound importance to understand and analyze with the help of contemporary knowledge and well recorded precedence the nature of the political party one aims to become a part of. In following section I aim to provide an overview of the four fundamental categories of political parties and discuss briefly the merits and demerits of each type.

1.  The Pragmatist. Pragmatic parties are those who often come to power and has the ability to stay in power for at least two consecutive rounds of elections. These parties are often the most successful ones among the four categories and by the strength of statistical probability a candidate of a pragmatic party has a stronger chance of winning an election than his or her counterparts from the other categories. However, one should also keep in mind that getting a candidature for an election among such parties is of considerable difficulty. This is mostly due to the large number of fiercely jealous competitors who exist at all times.

2. The Conformist. Conformist parties are the ones which had been gaining popularity over a decade and have now attained a position strong enough to seriously challenge the political ambitions of the pragmatic party. These parties had been capable of discarding the ideology they had began with and have now found their true calling in establishing a strong political clout. The chances of winning an election from such parties are considerably high. The competition, thought it exists, is generally less than in the pragmatic party. But the possibility of being at the receiving end of political violence unleashed by insecure pragmatic politicians is far more than negligible.

3. The Nostalgic. Nostalgic parties are the ones who had been losing their political ground and voters’ base over nearly a decade. Their ideology is currently defunct and has a difficult future, but they are yet to be completely written off. There are usually more than enough vacant places for new recruits, even in the higher ranks. While the competition is low, the success rate in an election can be rather dismal.

4. The Idealist. Idealist parties have never been in power but may act as percursursors of the first three categories. However, readers  must note that there exist truly idealist parties who never become conformists or pragmatists.  Any competition in such an environment is clearly non-existant but rewards at the same time are also few and far between and mostly comprise of conscientious self-righteousness.