Recently many questions have been raised about the drawbacks or shortcomings within Afghan political system. One of the major issues in Afghanistan's political crisis is the absence of one institution that has been a key for democratic systems in different countries of the world; and that is political parties. The political parties are indispensible for the proper functioning of all kinds of government, but they have a special importance under the democratic system. According to Prof. Bryce, "No free large country has been without them. No one has shown how representative government could work without them."
A political party as Maclver believes is "an association organized in support of some principles of policy which by constitutional means it endeavors to make the determinant of government." Another Political thinker Edmund Burke believes that a political party is "a body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavors the national interest, upon some particular principles in which they are all agreed." However, another important and comprehensive definition is given by Leacock, who thinks, "A political party is more or less organized group of citizens who act together as a political unit.
They share or profess to share the same opinions on public questions and by exercising their voting power towards a common end seek to obtain control of the Government." To draw a comprehensive conclusion from the definitions one can say that a political party is a voluntary association that is formed by persons who hold common views on certain basic political, economic and other matters. It is mostly well organized and possesses well laid down rules and regulations. It is mostly assumed that its members believe in peaceful and constitutional methods and they aim at capturing political power with a view to promote the public rather than narrow party interests.
Depending on the nature of the political atmosphere and history different countries have different types of party systems – one party system as found in USSR and China and two-party system as found in Britain and USA and multi-party system as found in India and France. It cannot be said which party system is the most ideal as every one of them has its own advantages and disadvantages and mostly depend on the political atmosphere and history of the country.
One-party system is generally found in totalitarian states. In such a system there is only one political party in the country. No other political party is allowed to come into existence. Even the slightest opposition is dealt with a heavy hand. One-party system is considered undemocratic is so far as there is no scope for an alternative government, and the people are not able to exercise any influence on the political decisions in the country.
Two-party system or bi-party system implies that there are two major political parties in the country out of whom one forms the government while the other forms the opposition.
As already noted both in USA and UK there is two-party system. It may be noted that under this system there can be more than two political parties but the other political parties are so insignificant that they are hardly able to play any effective role in the political life of the country.
Multi-party system implies that there are more than two political parties which influence the political life of the country. Certain scholars consider multi-party system more democratic than bi-party system because it provides wider choice to the electors. It also checks the possibility of cabinet dictatorship because generally it leads to coalition cabinets and no single party is able to dominate or dictate its terms.
Political parties have different functions in the democratic systems. They formulate programs or public policies on the basis of which they contest the elections and make the issues and their solutions comprehendible for the common voters who mostly face difficulties in understanding complex problems of modern states.
As the political parties aim at capturing power, they select candidates who are very much capable and have understanding of politics to a certain extent and can satisfy the voters so that they can have more votes. The political parties also perform the important function of launching election campaigns, which not only attract voters for the parties but also function as important process wherein different national issues are discussed and their problems are brought in public. In this way the common people have understanding of various major issues not only related to the state but to their own lives.
The political parties cannot only support the country by gaining power or government rather the minority parties play a vital role as opposition. They keep an alert eye on the actions and policies of the government and highlight the action of omission and commission. Through constant criticism they keep the government on the "right" path.
Given that party system has so many advantages for a democratic nation, Afghanistan's political parties do not seem to have much influence in political system. The elections in Afghanistan are not contested on the basis of party system, which is one of the major defects of the system and must be addressed properly. Even the voting system in Afghanistan does not support a party system.
It is based on single non-transferable vote (SNTV), which is only practiced in a couple of other countries in the world. The system in true sense is non-democratic and must be scrutinized. Generally, in a parliamentary democracy the parties are allocated seats based on their proportion of votes.
However, in SNTV system each individual is allocated a seat on the basis of his votes. The individual with the highest number of votes gets the first seat; the individual with the second highest number of votes gets the second seat and so on until all the seats are occupied. In this way there can be a huge difference between the number of votes earned by any two individuals who are allocated seats. The result of such a voting system is not democratic in true sense of the word.
Afghan authorities and international community must strive to introduce party system within Afghanistan's political system and bring about necessary changes so as to promote such a system because without political parties a democratic system cannot prosper.