POLITICAL

PARTIES
Lesson 13
 OBJECTIVES:
• Describe the nature of political parties in the
Philippines;
• Discuss the implications of the existing political
party system in the Philippines on the
governance of the country ; and
• Propose different advocacies and how to
address through the methods utilized by
political parties.
 “WE MUST NOT ALLOW OURSELVES TO
BECOME LIKE THE SYSTEM WE OPPOSE”

-DESMUND TUTU
 Another way through which the people
can participate in the government is through
political parties.

Each political party represents a

certain group of people in society, ensuring
that their rights and advocacies are voiced out
directly to the government. This
representation is usually done through
legislative bills and resolutions; hence, a lot of
political parties try to secure a place in the
legislative branch to have their own voice in
the government.
 • DEFENSOR SANTIAGO (2002)
defined a political party as a
“group of people that is organized
for the purpose of winning
government power”
• Other definitions of a political party
have the similar idea and a common
emphasis on the participation of these
groups in elections and the
“interest to gain public offices and
mandates”
(Grabow and Hofmeister (2011).
• One characteristic of a political party that
distinguishes it from other organizations
and interest groups is that, while most
interest groups focus on single issues,
“a political party is expected to express
itself in all issues relevant for
government”
(Grabow and Hofmeister 2011).
A POLITICAL PARTY’S PARTICIPATION IN

THE ELECTIONS AND THE GOVERNMENT

SERVES SEVERAL FUNCTIONS SUCH AS:

 • Expressing and aggregating social
interests,thus “persuading voter to
support various issues” and “lending
coherence to voter choices”

(UNDP, n.d.,p.9, Grabow and Hofmeister

2011, p. 16);
 • Recruiting and training future
politicians

(Defensor-Santiago 2002, p. 228

Grabow and Hofmeister 2011;
UNDP, n.d);
• Formulating policies and programs for the
government as commonly seen in their
platforms

(Defensor-Santiago 2002;
Grabow and Hofmeister 2011;UNDP. N.d.);
 • Providing a medium for ”political
socialization and participation of the
citizens”

(Defensor-Santiago 2002;
Grabow and Hofmeister 2011);
• Organizing the government by providing a
degree of stability and coherence that
is,when they fill up vacant positions in the
government

(Defensor-Santiago 2002;
Grabow and Hofmeister 2011);
• Legitimizing the political system by
embeddin the processes and system
into the consciousness of the
participants

(Grabow and Hofmeister 2011.)

DIFFERENT TYPES OF

PARTY SYSTEMS
 ONE-PARTY SYSTEM
• There is a monopoly of power;as the
name suggests there is just one
existing party (Defensor-Santiago
2002; Grabow and Hofmeister 2011)
 TWO-PARTY SYSTEM
• There are two parties going against each other
for domination in the government. In some
cases, such as the United States, there are only
two parties. In other countries, there is the two
plus one or more party system where there are
two “major” parties and several minor ones
(Defensor-Santiago
2002;Grabow and Hofmeister 2011).
 3. MULTIPARTY SYSTEM
• As the name implies, more than two
parties compete with almost equal
capabilities in affecting and winning in
the political competition
(Defensor-Santiago 2002;Grabow and
Hofmeister 2011).
 THE PARTY-LIST SYSTEM
• AIM: to provide a balanced representation in
the Congress.
• NUMBER: Party-list representatives comprise
20% in the House of Representatives.
• PARTICIPANTS: Only registered with the
COMELEC
• NOMINATION: only one person as its
representative
• REPRESENTATIVE: must be a FILIPINO citizen as
THANK YOU!!!