4.4 Role of Political Party Systems

• Linkage: a linkage institution connects citizens to government; parties turn public demands into policy.
• Recruitment: they find, train and choose candidates.
• Mobilization: they get voters to the polls.
• Governing: they organize the legislature and, in parliamentary systems, form the government.
• Patronage: in some systems they hand out jobs and favors to supporters.

Party discipline means legislators vote with their party. In the UK, party officials called whips tell MPs how to vote and keep track of rebels. MPs who defy the whip on key votes can be suspended from their party. Strong discipline lets the government pass its program and makes voters' choice of party meaningful, but it limits individual MPs' independence.

For decades the PRI used el dedazo (“the big finger”): the outgoing president personally picked the party's next presidential candidate, who was then sure to win. The PRI also used patronage and its links to unions and farmer groups to stay in power. As election rules became fairer in the 1990s, opposition parties gained ground. The PRI held its first open presidential primary in 1999 and lost the presidency in 2000. Since 2018 the newer party Morena has become the strongest party, while the PRI has shrunk.

Russia: United Russia is often called a “party of power.” It exists mainly to support the president and the government, gives officials a ladder for their careers and delivers Duma majorities. The return of single-member districts in 2016 helped it, since it won most district seats while small parties struggled.

China: The Communist Party has about 100 million members. Through the nomenklatura system it controls appointments to key posts in government, state companies, universities and the military, so loyalty to the party is the path to advancement.

Nigeria shows patronage inside a competitive system: powerful patrons called “godfathers” often control party nominations, and politicians frequently switch parties before elections.

Parties are legal in Iran but weak. Politicians group into broad factions: principlists, who stress loyalty to the revolution's values, and reformists, who favor more social freedom and engagement with the West, with moderates in between. Alliances shift from election to election, and because the Guardian Council screens candidates, factions compete only within limits the system sets.