Rebel leader (1989–1997)
110-689: President of Liberia (1997–2003) Post-Presidency (2003–present) The National Patriotic Party ( NPP ) is a political party in Liberia . It was formed in 1997 by members of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia following the end of the First Liberian Civil War . The party contested the 1997 general election , with the NPFL's leader, Charles Taylor , serving as the party's presidential candidate. Taylor won
220-556: A liberal - conservative divide, or around religious disputes. The spread of the party model of politics was accelerated by the 1848 Revolutions around Europe. The strength of political parties in the United States waned during the Era of Good Feelings , but shifted and strengthened again by the second half of the 19th century. This was not the only country in which the strength of political parties had substantially increased by
330-456: A party chair , who may be different people from the party leader. These executive organizations may serve to constrain the party leader, especially if that leader is an autocrat. It is common for political parties to conduct major leadership decisions, like selecting a party executive and setting their policy goals, during regular party conferences . Much as party leaders who are not in power are usually at least nominally competing to become
440-463: A single-member district electoral system tend to have very few parties, whereas countries that use proportional representation tend to have more. The number of parties in a country can also be accurately estimated based on the magnitude of a country's electoral districts and the number of seats in its legislature. An informative way to classify the party systems of the world is by how many parties they include. Because some party systems include
550-416: A candidate in one electoral district has an incentive to assist a similar candidate in a different district. Thus, political parties can be mechanisms for preventing candidates with similar goals from acting to each other's detriment when campaigning or governing. This might help explain the ubiquity of parties: if a group of candidates form a party and are harming each other less, they may perform better over
660-543: A candidate to victory in an election. Some scholars argue that the first modern political parties developed in early modern Britain in the 17th century, after the Exclusion Crisis and the Glorious Revolution . The Whig faction originally organized itself around support for Protestant constitutional monarchy as opposed to absolute rule , whereas the conservative Tory faction (originally
770-403: A community of party members. Parties in democracies usually select their party leadership in ways that are more open and competitive than parties in autocracies, where the selection of a new party leader is likely to be tightly controlled. In countries with large sub-national regions, particularly federalist countries, there may be regional party leaders and regional party members in addition to
880-532: A country with multiple competitive parties is not necessarily democratic, and the politics of many autocratic countries are organized around one dominant political party. The ubiquity and strength of political parties in nearly every modern country has led researchers to remark that the existence of political parties is almost a law of politics, and to ask why parties appear to be such an essential part of modern states. Political scientists have therefore come up with several explanations for why political parties are
990-609: A deeper connection to the electorate. The idea of people forming large groups or factions to advocate for their shared interests is ancient. Plato mentions the political factions of Classical Athens in the Republic , and Aristotle discusses the tendency of different types of government to produce factions in the Politics . Certain ancient disputes were also factional, like the Nika riots between two chariot racing factions at
1100-413: A democracy will often affiliate with a specific political party. Party membership may include paying dues, an agreement not to affiliate with multiple parties at the same time, and sometimes a statement of agreement with the party's policies and platform. In democratic countries, members of political parties often are allowed to participate in elections to choose the party leadership. Party members may form
1210-456: A democracy. There have been periods of government exclusively or entirely by one party in some countries that are often considered to have been democratic, and which had no official legal barriers to the inclusion of other parties in the government; this includes recent periods in Botswana , Japan , Mexico , Senegal , and South Africa . It can also occur that one political party dominates
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#17327719215181320-591: A joint statement reminding the Government of Liberia of its obligation to protect human rights defenders, and of the United Nations Human Rights Committee's Concluding Observations, issued in 2018. The UN body said that the Government of Liberian should make certain that “all alleged perpetrators of gross human rights violations and war crimes are impartially prosecuted and, if found guilty, convicted and punished in accordance with
1430-426: A large membership base. Further, mass parties prioritize the mobilization of voters and are more centralized than elite parties. The term "catch-all party" was developed by German-American political scientist Otto Kirchheimer to describe the parties that developed in the 1950s and 1960s as a result of changes within the mass parties. The term "big tent party" may be used interchangeably. Kirchheimer characterized
1540-485: A large number of parties that have a very low probability of winning elections, it is often useful to think about the effective number of parties (the number of parties weighted by the strength of those parties) rather than the literal number of registered parties. In a non-partisan system, no political parties exist, or political parties are not a major part of the political system. There are very few countries without political parties . In some non-partisan countries,
1650-401: A large number of political parties around the world, not all political parties have an organizing ideology, or exist to promote ideological policies. For example, some political parties may be clientelistic or patronage -based organizations, which are largely concerned with distributing goods. Other political parties may be created as tools for the advancement of an individual politician. It
1760-495: A major upheaval in their politics and have not yet returned to a stable system of political parties. For example, the United States began as a non-partisan democracy, and it evolved a stable system of political parties over the course of many decades. A country's party system may also dissolve and take time to re-form, leaving a period of minimal or no party system, such as in Peru following the regime of Alberto Fujimori . However, it
1870-399: A nearly universal political phenomenon. One of the core explanations for the existence of political parties is that they arise from pre-existing divisions among people: society is divided in a certain way, and a party is formed to organize that division into the electoral competition. By the 1950s, economists and political scientists had shown that party organizations could take advantage of
1980-551: A non-State armed group to be prosecuted for torture, the group must have been exercising “governmental functions”. The Central Criminal Court ruled that the evidence presented by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) failed to prove that the NPFL had the requisite authority over the relevant territory at the time the crimes in question were committed. Therefore, the Court dismissed the case. However, in its decision,
2090-511: A number of countries, particularly longstanding European democracies. Political scientists have distinguished between different types of political parties that have evolved throughout history. These include elite parties, mass parties, catch-all parties and cartel parties. Elite parties were political elites that were concerned with contesting elections and restricted the influence of outsiders, who were only required to assist in election campaigns. Mass parties tried to recruit new members who were
2200-417: A phenonmenon observable among European Green parties during their transformation from radical environmentalist movements to mainstream centre-left parties. An Entrepreneurial party is a political party that is centered on a political entrepreneur , and dedicated to the advancement of that person or their policies. While some definitions of political parties state that a party is an organization that advances
2310-886: A realistic chance of competing to form government. One current example of a two-party system is the United States , where the national government has for much of the country's history exclusively been controlled by either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party . Other examples of countries which have had long periods of two-party dominance include Colombia , Uruguay , Malta , and Ghana . Two-party systems are not limited to democracies; they may be present in authoritarian regimes as well. Competition between two parties has occurred in historical autocratic regimes in countries including Brazil and Venezuela . A democracy's political institutions can shape
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#17327719215182420-412: A single best policy choice without some institution constraining their options. Another prominent explanation for why political parties exist is psychological: parties may be necessary for many individuals to participate in politics because they provide a massively simplifying heuristic , which allows people to make informed choices with much less mental effort than if voters had to consciously evaluate
2530-558: A smaller group can be a feature of party leadership transitions in more autocratic countries, where the existence of political parties may be severely constrained to only one legal political party, or only one competitive party. Some of these parties, like the Chinese Communist Party , have rigid methods for selecting the next party leader, which involves selection by other party members. A small number of single-party states have hereditary succession, where party leadership
2640-405: A source of party income and were often expected to spread party ideology as well as assist in elections. In the United States, where both major parties were elite parties, the introduction of primaries and other reforms has transformed them so that power is held by activists who compete over influence and nomination of candidates. An elite party is a type of political party that was dominant in
2750-479: A specific set of ideological or policy goals, many political parties are not primarily motivated by ideology or policy, and instead exist to advance the career of a specific political entrepreneur . Political ideologies are one of the major organizing features of political parties, and parties often officially align themselves with specific ideologies. Parties adopt ideologies for a number of reasons. Ideological affiliations for political parties send signals about
2860-456: A striped frame of a vehicle and could bring nothing to the table." The Liberian government, despite the supreme court ruling, has recognized Taylor's faction as the party leadership. In 2023 Taylor named Joe Mulbah as "acting chairman" of her faction of the NPP who suspended chairman James Biney from the party, who, in turn, nullified his own suspension and suspended Taylor and Mulbah. The cause of
2970-465: A sub-national region of a democratic country that has a competitive national party system; one example is the southern United States during much of the 19th and 20th centuries, where the Democratic Party had almost complete control, with the Southern states being functionally one-party regimes, though opposition parties were never prohibited. In several countries, there are only two parties that have
3080-476: A very large portion of society and it can play substantial roles in civil society that are not necessarily directly related to political governance; one example of this is the Chinese Communist Party . Bans on competing parties can also ensure that only one party can ever realistically hold power, even without completely outlawing all other political parties. For example, in North Korea , more than one party
3190-628: A way that does not conform to the dominant economic left-right divide in politics, in turn emphasising issues that do not attain prominence within the other parties. Further, niche parties do not respond to changes in public opinion to the extent that mainstream parties do. Examples of niche parties include Green parties and extreme nationalist parties, such as the National Rally in France. However, over time these parties may grow in size and shed some of their niche qualities as they become larger,
3300-521: Is also common, in countries with important social cleavages along ethnic or racial lines, to represent the interests of one ethnic group or another. This may involve a non-ideological attachment to the interests of that group, or may be a commitment based on an ideology like identity politics . While any of these types of parties may be ideological, there are political parties that do not have any organizing ideology. Political parties are ubiquitous across both democratic and autocratic countries, and there
3410-423: Is also possible – albeit rare – for countries with no bans on political parties, and which have not experienced a major disruption, to nevertheless have no political parties: there are a small number of pacific island democracies, such as Palau , where political parties are permitted to exist and yet parties are not an important part of national politics. In a one-party system , power
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3520-405: Is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections . It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics , and parties may promote specific ideological or policy goals. Political parties have become a major part of the politics of almost every country, as modern party organizations developed and spread around the world over
3630-510: Is common for democratic elections to feature competitions between liberal , conservative , and socialist parties; other common ideologies of very large political parties include communism , populism , nationalism , and Islamism . Political parties in different countries will often adopt similar colours and symbols to identify themselves with a particular ideology. However, many political parties have no ideological affiliation, and may instead be primarily engaged in patronage , clientelism ,
3740-576: Is held entirely by one political party. When only one political party exists, it may be the result of a ban on the formation of any competing political parties, which is a common feature in authoritarian states. For example, the Communist Party of Cuba is the only permitted political party in Cuba , and is the only party that can hold seats in the legislature. When only one powerful party is legally permitted to exist, its membership can grow to contain
3850-407: Is inherited by the child of an outgoing party leader. Autocratic parties use more restrictive selection methods to avoid having major shifts in the regime as a result of successions. In both democratic and non-democratic countries, the party leader is often the foremost member of a larger party leadership. A party executive will commonly include administrative positions, like a party secretary and
3960-408: Is largely insignificant as parties use the resources of the state to maintain their position within the political system. Niche parties are a type of political party that developed on the basis of the emergence of new cleavages and issues in politics, such as immigration and the environment. In contrast to mainstream or catch-all parties, niche parties articulate an often limited set of interests in
4070-526: Is officially permitted to exist and even to seat members in the legislature, but laws ensure that the Workers' Party of Korea retains control. It is also possible for countries with free elections to have only one party that holds power. These cases are sometimes called dominant-party systems or particracies . Scholars have debated whether or not a country that has never experienced a transfer of power from one party to another can nevertheless be considered
4180-399: Is often very little change in which political parties have a chance of holding power in a country from one election to the next. This makes it possible to think about the political parties in a country as collectively forming one of the country's central political institutions , called a party system. Some basic features of a party system are the number of parties and what sorts of parties are
4290-442: Is reduced as catch-all parties are financed in part by the state or by donations. In Europe, the shift of Christian Democratic parties that were organized around religion into broader centre-right parties epitomizes this type. Cartel parties are a type of political party that emerged post-1970s and are characterized by heavy state financing and the diminished role of ideology as an organizing principle. The cartel party thesis
4400-432: Is the ideology that is most closely connected to the history of democracies and is often considered to be the dominant or default ideology of governing parties in much of the contemporary world. Many of the traditional competitors to liberal parties are conservative parties. Socialist, communist, feminist, anarchist, fascist, and nationalist parties are more recent developments, largely entering political competitions only in
4510-648: The Federalist Party and the Democratic-Republican Party . By the early 19th century, a number of countries had developed stable modern party systems. The party system that developed in Sweden has been called the world's first party system, on the basis that previous party systems were not fully stable or institutionalized. In many European countries, including Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, and France, political parties organized around
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4620-657: The Hippodrome of Constantinople . A few instances of recorded political groups or factions in history included the late Roman Republic's Populares and Optimates factions as well as the Dutch Republic's Orangists and the Staatsgezinde . However, modern political parties are considered to have emerged around the end of the 18th century; they are usually considered to have first appeared in Europe and
4730-675: The International Maritime Organization , which headquarters in London, from 1999 to 2005. In 2003 the Security Council Committee established in resolution 1521 a list of Liberian individuals and entities subject to a travel ban and included Agnes Taylor. In 2007 she was granted asylum in the UK, while she was still on the travel ban list, which was updated to include her location as being in
4840-584: The Royalist or Cavalier faction of the English Civil War ) supported a strong monarchy, and these two groups structured disputes in the politics of the United Kingdom throughout the 18th century The Rockingham Whigs have been identified as the first modern political party, because they retained a coherent party label and motivating principles even while out of power. At the end of
4950-417: The 19th and 20th centuries. Environmentalism, multiculturalism, and certain types of fundamentalism became prominent towards the end of the 20th century. Parties can sometimes be organized according to their ideology using an economic left–right political spectrum . However, a simple left-right economic axis does not fully capture the variation in party ideologies. Other common axes that are used to compare
5060-468: The 2016 party constitution was declared null and void and that Biney is the rightful leader of the party. The CDC has largely supported the attempted takeover of the party by Taylor's faction, with Weah's advisor on communications, Gabriel Nyenkan , arguing that the NPP should be grateful to the CDC for allowing them to participate in the government, and that the NPP as a stand alone political party "had become
5170-607: The British Police of arresting her before conducting any investigation: “they arrested me first and began to investigate several months later”. Agnes Reeves Taylor's return in Liberia provoked a lot of discussion in the press and on social media. A founding member of the National Patriotic Party (NPP), George Mulbah, wrote on his Facebook page: “The National Patriotic Party welcome the founding mother of
5280-519: The CDC seriously considered removing Taylor from the office of vice president, with Mulbah Morlu , chairman of the Congress for Democratic Change suggesting she be replaced with the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel McGill , however, backed off following backlash from the pro-Taylor NPP, namely chairwoman of the NPP's woman wing and Bong County superintendent Esther Walker , and
5390-484: The CDC with Taylor again as Weah's running mate. Chairman Emeritus of the party, Chief Cyril Allen, denounced the 7th party convention as "complete gangsterism" and accused Taylor of paying attendees to sign a resolution against Biney and the NPP party structure. In March of 2022 the Supreme Court of Liberia found in favor of Biney, that Jewel Howard-Taylor had no official powers to call a party convention, and that
5500-544: The CDC's boycott of the runoff election in protest due to partisan politicians being named to the National Elections Commission (NEC) and demanding the resignation of NEC Chairman James Fromayan . The party's 2016 convention was held in Buchanan, Liberia . The main topic was the influence held by Jewel Howard-Taylor , who served in an official capacity as the party's "Standard Bearer." Prior to
5610-508: The Court noted that “ there is prima facie evidence that she held a high rank in the NPFL and (…) carried out, whether personally, or by giving orders, or by acquiescing in, the acts of torture (…) which took place in, or on the border of, Nimba County." Thus, Reeves Taylor was not found innocent. Civitas Maxima and the Monrovia-based Global Justice and Research Project (GJRP) provided the initial information to
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#17327719215185720-482: The Metropolitan Police and charged with torture on the grounds of her suspected involvement with the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NFPL) rebel group, which was led by her ex-husband, during the First Liberian Civil War , from 1989 to 1996. As the second Liberian civil war broke out in 1999, Agnes Reeves Taylor was appointed by Charles Taylor to serve as Permanent Representative of Liberia to
5830-506: The NPP Bong county chairman James Dorbor Sao and vice chairman for administration Paul Wheeler . In 2020 Agnes Reeves Taylor , ex-wife of Charles Taylor, returned to Liberia after the dismissal of her war crime charges. Biney's NPP welcomed her return with a parade and a rally, championing her as the "true mother" of the NPP, and seeking to tap her for a leadership role to mitigate the influence of Jewel Howard-Taylor. In 2021, following
5940-662: The National Transitional Government of Liberia. The party later contested the 2005 general election . The party's presidential candidate was Roland Massaquoi , who earned 4.1% of the vote. The NPP also won four seats in the House of Representatives and another four in the Senate. The party was a member of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC) during the 2011 Liberian general election , and joined
6050-686: The UK Criminal Justice Act 1988, thus legally paving the way for the case against Agnes Reeves Taylor to proceed to trial. However, after rendering its judgment, the UK Supreme Court sent the case back to the Central Criminal Court to consider further evidence from the prosecution's expert and apply the legal standard confirmed by the Supreme Court to the facts of the case. In order for a member of
6160-541: The UK Criminal Justice Act 1988. She was also charged with one count of conspiracy to commit torture between 23 December 1989 and 1 January 1991, under section 1(1) of the UK Criminal Law Act 1977. Gbarnga had served as the headquarters of Charles Taylor's NPFL during the first Liberian civil war. A final peace agreement led to the election of Charles Taylor as President of Liberia in 1997. The eight counts Agnes Reeves Taylor faced concerned events in 1990 as
6270-465: The UK authorities which led the Metropolitan Police to conduct an investigation into Agnes Reeves Taylor for several years. UK law allows the CPS in these circumstances to return to court if further evidence of government-like control is gathered. It remains to be seen if CPS will do this. Seven months after the dismissal of her case, Agnes Reeves Taylor returned to Liberia. Although she had claimed asylum in
6380-407: The UK, her application to settle there permanently was refused under a Home Office rule that there were serious reasons to consider that she had, amongst other things, committed a crime against peace, a war crime, or a crime against humanity . Upon her return in Liberia, Agnes Reeves Taylor stated in a press conference on 27 July 2020 that it was “one of the misconceptions that was out there” that she
6490-798: The United Kingdom. She was removed from the travel ban list in 2012. She settled in the UK, where she worked as a lecturer at the London School of Commerce and Coventry University. Her residence in the UK allowed the UK authorities to arrest and charge her, based on universal jurisdiction laws, with the crimes she allegedly committed in Liberia. She was charged with seven counts of torture allegedly committed in Gbarnga, in northern Liberia, and in Gborplay, in north-eastern Liberia. The torture charges were brought under section 134(1) of
6600-495: The United States of America, with the United Kingdom's Conservative Party and the Democratic Party of the United States both frequently called the world's "oldest continuous political party". Before the development of mass political parties, elections typically featured a much lower level of competition, had small enough polities that direct decision-making was feasible, and held elections that were dominated by individual networks or cliques that could independently propel
6710-408: The advancement of a specific political entrepreneur , or be a " big tent ", in that they wish to attract voters who have a variety of positions on issues. Political parties are collective entities and activities that organize competitions for political offices. The members of a political party contest elections under a shared label. In a narrow definition, a political party can be thought of as just
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#17327719215186820-405: The base of the volunteer activists and donors who support political parties during campaigns. The extent of participation in party organizations can be affected by a country's political institutions, with certain electoral systems and party systems encouraging higher party membership. Since at least the 1980s, membership in large traditional party organizations has been steadily declining across
6930-475: The century, the United States also developed a party system, called the First Party System . Although the framers of the 1787 United States Constitution did not all anticipate that American political disputes would be primarily organized around political parties, political controversies in the early 1790s over the extent of federal government powers saw the emergence of two proto-political parties :
7040-438: The claim that parties emerge from existing cleavages, or arguing that the claim is not empirically testable. Others note that while social cleavages might cause political parties to exist, this obscures the opposite effect: that political parties also cause changes in the underlying social cleavages. A further objection is that, if the explanation for where parties come from is that they emerge from existing social cleavages, then
7150-424: The cognitive burden for people to cast informed votes. However, some evidence suggests that over the last several decades, the strength of party identification has been weakening, so this may be a less important function for parties to provide than it was in the past. Political parties are often structured in similar ways across countries. They typically feature a single party leader, a group of party executives, and
7260-476: The committee gathering to call for signing of the CDC resolution was illegitimate as meetings of the party's executive committee can only be called and presided over by the party chairman. Shortly after the "suspension" of Biney, Taylor organized members of the NPP Youth Council to protest for a war crimes trail for Prince Johnson while he was purportedly giving a sermon against Taylor which prompted
7370-399: The congregation to evacuate out of fear of a violent escalation. In response Johnson began surrounding his church with armed supporters and threatened a violent response should Taylor continue to push for protests against him. Most opposition parties to the CDC used the event as an opportunity to criticize Taylor, Weah and the NPP as a whole. Political party A political party
7480-402: The convention she was able to negotiate a coalition with George Weah 's CDC to see Taylor elected Vice President of Liberia during the 2017 Liberian general election . Additionally, she also organized a meeting to change the party's constitution, greatly enhancing her powers to basically rule the NPP by decree. During the 2017 election it was found that Charles Taylor was continuing to guide
7590-575: The distribution of voters' preferences over political issues, adjusting themselves in response to what voters believe in order to become more competitive. Beginning in the 1960s, academics began identifying the social cleavages in different countries that might have given rise to specific parties, such as religious cleavages in specific countries that may have produced religious parties there. The theory that parties are produced by social cleavages has drawn several criticisms. Some authors have challenged it on empirical grounds, either finding no evidence for
7700-413: The divisions between lower and upper classes , and they streamline the process of making political decisions by encouraging their members to cooperate. Political parties usually include a party leader, who has primary responsibility for the activities of the party; party executives, who may select the leader and who perform administrative and organizational tasks; and party members, who may volunteer to help
7810-494: The end of the century; for example, around this time the Irish political leader Charles Stewart Parnell implemented several methods and structures like party discipline that would come to be associated with strong grassroots political parties. At the beginning of the 20th century in Europe, the liberal–conservative divide that characterized most party systems was disrupted by the emergence of socialist parties, which attracted
7920-411: The entire party, and some voters decide how to vote in elections partly based on how much they like the leaders of the different parties. The number of people involved in choosing party leaders varies widely across parties and across countries. On one extreme, party leaders might be selected from the entire electorate; on the opposite extreme, they might be selected by just one individual. Selection by
8030-418: The fact that a party is focused on electing candidates, whereas a parliamentary group is a group of political parties, a political faction is a subgroup within a political party, and an advocacy group is focused on advancing a policy agenda. This is related to other features that sometimes distinguish parties from other political organizations, including a larger membership, greater stability over time, and
8140-469: The first civil war raged across Liberia. · The charge of conspiracy to commit torture related to her alleged facilitation of the rape of captive women by soldiers in Charles Taylor's rebel forces (NPFL) · Three of the torture charges related to her alleged infliction of "severe pain or suffering", including assaults, on a 13-year-old child soldier. · She
8250-783: The first political party in Uganda, and its name was chosen as an homage to the Indian National Congress. As broader suffrage rights and eventually universal suffrage slowly spread throughout democracies, political parties expanded dramatically, and only then did a vision develop of political parties as intermediaries between the full public and the government. Political parties are a nearly ubiquitous feature of modern countries. Nearly all democratic countries have strong political parties, and many political scientists consider countries with fewer than two parties to necessarily be autocratic . However, these sources allow that
8360-668: The formation of parties is explicitly banned by law. The existence of political parties may be banned in autocratic countries in order to prevent a turnover in power. For example, in Saudi Arabia , a ban on political parties has been used as a tool for protecting the monarchy. However, parties are also banned in some polities that have long democratic histories, usually in local or regional elections of countries that have strong national party systems. Political parties may also temporarily cease to exist in countries that have either only been established recently, or that have experienced
8470-413: The group of candidates who run for office under a party label. In a broader definition, political parties are the entire apparatus that supports the election of a group of candidates, including voters and volunteers who identify with a particular political party, the official party organizations that support the election of that party's candidates, and legislators in the government who are affiliated with
8580-575: The head of government, the entire party executive may be competing for various positions in the government. For example, in Westminster systems , the largest party that is out of power will form the Official Opposition in parliament, and select a shadow cabinet which (among other functions) provides a signal about which members of the party would hold which positions in the government if the party were to win an election. Citizens in
8690-464: The head of government. In both presidential democracies and parliamentary democracies , the members of a party frequently have substantial input into the selection of party leaders, for example by voting on party leadership at a party conference . Because the leader of a major party is a powerful and visible person, many party leaders are well-known career politicians. Party leaders can be sufficiently prominent that they affect voters' perceptions of
8800-471: The ideologies of political parties include ranges from liberal to authoritarian, from pro-establishment to anti-establishment , and from tolerant and pluralistic (in their behavior while participating in the political arena) to anti-system. Party positions for individual political parties are assessed by different published indices, such as the V-Party Dataset . Though ideologies are central to
8910-530: The introduction of universal suffrage resulted in the creation of worker's parties that later evolved into mass parties; an example is the German Social Democratic Party . These parties represented large groups of citizens who had not previously been represented in political processes, articulating the interests of different groups in society. In contrast to elite parties, mass parties are funded by their members, and rely on and maintain
9020-568: The last few centuries. Although some countries have no political parties , this is extremely rare. Most countries have several parties while others only have one . Parties are important in the politics of autocracies as well as democracies , though usually democracies have more political parties than autocracies. Autocracies often have a single party that governs the country, and some political scientists consider competition between two or more parties to be an essential part of democracy. Parties can develop from existing divisions in society, like
9130-404: The long run than unaffiliated politicians , so politicians with party affiliations will out-compete politicians without parties. Parties can also align their member's incentives when those members are in a legislature. The existence of a party apparatus can help coalitions of electors to agree on ideal policy choices, whereas a legislature of unaffiliated members might never be able to agree on
9240-448: The merits of every candidate individually. Without political parties, electors would have to individually evaluate every candidate in every election. Parties enable electors to make judgments about just a few groups, and then apply their judgment of the party to its entire slate of candidates. Because it is much easier to become informed about a few parties' platforms than the positions of a multitude of independent candidates, parties reduce
9350-440: The most successful. These properties are closely connected to other major features of the country's politics, such as how democratic it is, what sorts of restrictions its laws impose on political parties, and what type of electoral systems it uses. Even in countries where the number of political parties is not officially constrained by law, political institutions affect how many parties are viable. For example, democracies that use
9460-432: The national membership and leadership. Parties are typically led by a party leader , who serves as the main representative of the party and often has primary responsibility for overseeing the party's policies and strategies. The leader of the party that controls the government usually becomes the head of government , such as the president or prime minister , and the leaders of other parties explicitly compete to become
9570-434: The nineteenth century before the introduction of universal suffrage. The French political scientist Maurice Duverger first distinguished between elite and "mass" parties, founding his distinction on the differences within the organisational structures of these two types. Elite parties are characterized by minimal and loose organisation, and are financed by fewer larger monetary contributions typically originating from outside
9680-453: The number of parties that it has. In the 1950s Maurice Duverger observed that single-member district single-vote plurality-rule elections tend to produce two-party systems, and this phenomenon came to be known as Duverger's law . Whether or not this pattern is true has been heavily debated over the last several decades. Some political scientists have broadened this idea to argue that more restrictive political institutions (of which first past
9790-602: The party Mrs. Agnes Reeves Taylor to Liberia. <…> Join me to welcome Agnes to Liberia” During the press conference, Agnes Reeves Taylor said some problematic comments regarding human rights defenders, which prompted an immediate reaction from international human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch , Center for Justice and Accountability, Centre for Civil and Political Rights, Civil Society Human Rights Advocacy Platform of Liberia, Civitas Maxima, Independent Human Rights Investigators, The Advocates for Human Rights, The Global Justice and Research Project who released
9900-431: The party via phone calls from prison. Weah and the NPP party structure denied this, stating that Charles Taylor has no influence over Weah, the NPP, or his ex-wife Jewel Howard-Taylor. In 2018, party chairman James Biney , angered by Taylor's meddling with the party, issued a resolution expelling Taylor, as well as John Gray , who she installed as chairman, from the party, and recommending to George Weah to remove her from
10010-472: The party's executive to be vacant and elected Stanley Kparkillen as the new party chairman. A fight would break out between the two convention goers with at least one death. Taylor's faction of the party argued that as standard bearer, Taylor is the sole authority to vet and approve members of the party to participate in the Weah government, and shortly after the convention declared that the NPP would be supporting
10120-420: The party, donate money to it, and vote for its candidates. There are many different ways in which political parties can be structured and interact with the electorate. The contributions that citizens give to political parties are often regulated by law, and parties will sometimes govern in a way that favours the people who donate time and money to them. Many political parties are motivated by ideological goals. It
10230-443: The party. In many countries, the notion of a political party is defined in law, and governments may specify requirements for an organization to legally qualify as a political party. Political parties are distinguished from other political groups or clubs, such as parliamentary groups, because only presidents have control over the political foundations of the party and also they include political factions, or advocacy groups, mostly by
10340-563: The party. Elite parties give little priority to expanding the party's membership base, and its leaders are its only members. The earliest political parties, such as the Democratic-Republicans and the Federalists , are classified as elite parties. A mass party is a type of political party that developed around cleavages in society and mobilized the ordinary citizens or 'masses' in the political process. In Europe,
10450-613: The policies of Indira Gandhi in the 1970s. The formation of the Indian National Congress , which developed in the late 19th century as a pro-independence faction in British India and immediately became a major political party after Indian independence, foreshadowed the dynamic in many newly independent countries; for example, the Uganda National Congress was a pro-independence party and
10560-548: The position of Vice President. Biney has made it clear that his faction of the NPP is unhappy with their position in the CDC and the CDC's continued support of Taylor and her faction of the NPP as opposed to the legitimate faction and leadership of the NPP and threatened the CDC with their withdrawal. This has led to a split in many county affiliates, namely the Maryland County branch developing two rival leaderships, one supporting Taylor and another supporting Biney. In 2019
10670-410: The post is one example) tend to produce a smaller number of political parties, so that extremely small parties systems – like those with only two parties – tend to form in countries with very restrictive rules. Agnes Reeves Taylor Agnes Reeves Taylor , ex-wife of former Liberian President Charles Taylor , was born on 27 September 1965 in Liberia. On 2 June 2017, she was arrested in London by
10780-702: The presidential election with 75% of the vote. The party also won 49 of 64 seats in the House of Representatives and 21 of 26 in the Senate . Due to domestic and international pressure as a result of the Second Liberian Civil War , Taylor stepped down as president in August 2003. In October of that year, Taylor's successor, Moses Blah , and the members of the Legislature resigned and ceded power to
10890-539: The renewed dispute is Biney's refusal to sign a resolution to commit the party to the Coalition for Democratic Change against the wishes of the party's executive committee, which Taylor argued is a violation of article 4 of the party's 2004 Constitution. However, Biney argued that Taylor had no authority to suspend the chairman, and that by attempting to do so violated article 5 of the party's 2004 Constitution and that Taylor and Mulbah were "convening an illegal and unconstitutional gathering." Biney has also gone on saying that
11000-403: The shift from the traditional mass parties to catch-all parties as a set of developments including the "drastic reduction of the party's ideological baggage" and the "downgrading of the role of the individual party member". By broadening their central ideologies into more open-ended ones, catch-all parties seek to secure the support of a wider section of the population. Further, the role of members
11110-688: The sudden death of Emmanuel Barten Nyeswua , the Youth Council of the NPP, which are vocal and often militant supporters of Jewel-Taylor, petitioned George Weah to name a pro-Taylor member of the NPP, Clarence Williams , as chairman of the Internal Audit Agency to show unity between the NPP and CDC. Instead Weah named David A. Kemah , a non-partisan, as the new chairman. In 2022 the NEC ruled that Chairman Biney's term should have expired after his four year term in 2020, and that his tenure
11220-451: The support of organized trade unions . During the wave of decolonization in the mid-20th century, many newly sovereign countries outside of Europe and North America developed party systems that often emerged from their movements for independence. For example, a system of political parties arose out of factions in the Indian independence movement , and was strengthened and stabilized by
11330-422: The theory is an incomplete story of where political parties come from unless it also explains the origins of these social cleavages. An alternative explanation for why parties are ubiquitous across the world is that the formation of parties provides compatible incentives for candidates and legislators. For example, the existence of political parties might coordinate candidates across geographic districts, so that
11440-589: The types of policies they might pursue if they were in power. Ideologies also differentiate parties from one another, so that voters can select the party that advances the policies that they most prefer. A party may also seek to advance an ideology by convincing voters to adopt its belief system. Common ideologies that can form a central part of the identity of a political party include liberalism , conservatism , socialism , communism , anarchism , fascism , feminism , environmentalism , nationalism , fundamentalism , Islamism , and multiculturalism . Liberalism
11550-410: Was also allegedly involved in the torture of a “pastor’s wife” who resisted being raped by one of Charles Taylor's commanders. She allegedly "ordered that the woman be tied [in a manner that caused pain amounting to torture]. The defendant then shot and killed the woman's two young children, saying ‘See if you refuse an order this will happen'." Anges Reeves Taylor denied involvement in any crimes. She
11660-430: Was born here, grew up here and went to school and university (The University of Liberia) here”. In her press conference and written press statement, she also accused the organisations and witnesses who assisted the UK authorities with their investigation and prosecution of her of colluding and lying, and taking part in “a grand mischievous and vicious scheme to destroy [her]” in “the hope of financial gain”. She also accused
11770-419: Was developed by Richard Katz and Peter Mair , who wrote that political parties have turned into "semi-state agencies", acting on behalf of the state rather than groups in society. The term 'cartel' refers to the way in which prominent parties in government make it difficult for new parties to enter, as such forming a cartel of established parties. As with catch-all parties, the role of members in cartel parties
11880-435: Was held in pre-trial detention in the UK from 2 June 2017 until her release in 2019. On 6 December 2019 the Central Criminal Court (The Old Bailey) in London decided to dismiss the charges against Agnes Reeves Taylor. The Court's decision came after the UK Supreme Court confirmed, in a historic judgment on 13 November 2019, that members of non-State armed groups may be prosecuted for crimes of torture under section 134(1) of
11990-622: Was without legitimacy. In response, Biney coordinated the party's 7th party convention in October in Paynesville, Liberia . Despite calls from the NEC to have the Biney and Taylor factions put their differences aside Democratically at the convention, Taylor and her supporters instead organized a rival convention. Inside the city hall Biney was re-elected as chairman, while the rival convention held outside by Jewel Howard-Taylor declared all seats in
12100-411: Was “looking for asylum” in the UK, and claimed that she “got asylum in the UK in 2007. ” In her written press statement issued the same day, she claimed that: “I have returned home to the land of my birth to also contribute to the building of our nation. I am a Liberian with deep love for my country and people. Those of you who know me can attest to this. I am no stranger to many well-meaning Liberians as I
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