VÎRLAN LENUȚA

FACULTATEA DE ȘTIINȚE POLITICE

ȘI ADMINISTRATIVE

ANUL I

SPECIALIZAREA: ȘTIINȚE POLITICE

SESIUNEA IANUARIE 2020

The masses as political actors

Within the society, the political activity is realized not only through the state, the
institutions and bodies related to them, but also through a vast and complex
network of non-state organizations and institutions. Within the latter, the
political parties highlight by importance, role and manifestation.

The existence of parties - political institutions that compete for the conquest of
power is one of the fundamental characteristics of pluralistic democracy. George
Burdeau considers the party as one of the most active agents of social cohesion;
morally - one of the last shelters of the ideal; From the political point of view,
the party is the engine of public life

Etymologically, the word derives from the Latin pars, partis or, according to the
opinion of some authors (Daniel-Louis Seiler), from a missing acceptance of the
verb depart which, in Old French, meant to divide, to divide. The party will first
mean an armed group, more precisely an irregular military band, acting on the
edge of the bulk of the armed forces or broken by them, so a kind of free body.
Over time, the word gets to designate an armed faction and then a political one.

The definitions given to political parties are numerous, depending on the

essential elements retained by their authors for the qualification of a party
organization: the pursued interest, with different degrees of generality - national,
class, group, private (E. Burke, AD Xenopol, D Like to); the ideological project
or nature (B. Constant, H. Kelsen, G. Burdeau); how to organize (J. La
Palombara, M. Wiener, M. Duverger); the objective of the conquest of power
(M. Weber, R. Aron, F. Goguel, F. Burdeau, G. Sartori, A. Giddens).

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Max Weber understood by parties, "the associations based on a (formal) free
commitment, with the aim to give their bosses the power within a group and to
their activists active ideal or material opportunities to achieve goals, objectives,
to gain advantages. personal or to make them both "

Dimitrie Gusti defined the party, "free association of citizens, permanently

united by common interests and ideas, of general character, an association that
pursues in the full public light to reach the power to govern for the realization of
a social ethical ideal" In Petre's conception P. Negulescu, the parties are born
"by grouping citizens into different political organizations, according to their
ideas regarding the direction to be followed by the development of the
respective state and to the most appropriate means of facilitating and
accelerating that development".

Studying the political scene in one country or another involves analyzing the
actors whose game animates the life of democracy. The political action is the
result of hiring individual or collective actors for power.

Within the society, the political activity is realized not only through the state, the
institutions and bodies related to it, but also through a vast and complex network
of non-state organizations and institutions. Within the latter it is revealed by
importance, by role and manifestation (which gives them a special position),
political parties. The existence of political parties, of partisanship as a political
phenomenon is an essential element of democratic life in modern societies.
Some authors even claim that democracy begins and exists only with the advent
and development to the partisanship, thus highlighting the necessary and
essential connection between the will of the society and its consideration in the
concrete act of governing, exercising public power.

The notion of party has from the etymological point of view the Latin pars-party
and designates a group of people constituted voluntarily, animated by the same
ideas, concepts, interests, goals that act jointly on the basis of a program, in
order to achieve them.

G. Burdeau proposes to define the party as a group of individuals who,

professing the same political views, strive to make them take over and, rallying
as many citizens as possible, seek the conquest of power or, at least, the
influence of its decisions.

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The genesis of modern political parties is found during the transition from
feudalism to capitalism, during the anti-feudal struggle carried on by the
bourgeoisie.

According to PP Negulescu, the police parties are born, by grouping citizens

into different political organizations, their support for the direction to be
followed by the development of the respective village and the most appropriate
means to facilitate and speed up that development. ".

The parties are the ones that create through their elected representatives the
political institutions (the parliament, the government, the head of state's
institution) and all of them, through the same representatives, ensure their
functionality.

The political party is a form of association characterized by the voluntary

reunion of its members, with its own thinking and action, with a unity of goals,
interests and ideas, all grouped on a political-ideological basis accepted and
acquired by its members.

According to the current regulations in our country, political parties contribute

(as legal persons with public law) to the definition and expression of the
political will of the citizens, respecting national sovereignty, territorial integrity,
order of law and the principles of democracy. By their activity, political parties
promote values and native interests, political pluralism, contributes to the
formation of political opinion, participates with candidates in elections and the
establishment of public authorities and stimulates the participation of citizens in
elections, according to the law.