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 Home » Constitution Design » Questions for constitution makers in Nepal » Political Parties

Introduction to Parties


Often constitutions say nothing about political parties. But this gives a very misleading impression of the nature of the governmental system, because parties have a profound impact. A recent draft constitution explained the role of political parties like this:

Role and functions of political parties

Political parties serve the interests of the nation, foster democracy and facilitate the participation of the people, by -
  1. mobilizing public opinion on matters of national interest, and fostering national values and outlook;
  2. bringing together opinions and resources of persons with similar views, interests or persuasion so as to generate policies and other proposals for the social, economic, and political development of the Republic;
  3. providing a means through which people may participate in the political and constitutional processes and exercise their civil and political rights;
  4. using their facilities and resources to secure representation of the people in state organs and offer them social, economic, and political choices through the electoral process, and
  5. providing a means for the expression of public opinion including in relation to government policy making; and
  6. holding the government and leaders accountable to the people.

This is taken from the draft of a suggested new Constitution for Kenya prepared by Professor Yash Ghai in 2006. It is similar to the draft adopted by the Constituent Assembly in 2004, but then amended by the government (though not significantly in this respect), but rejected in a referendum.

There has been some disillusionment with political parties in many countries, but it is important to realise that democracy really cannot function without parties. You can read an article arguing that Civil society cannot replace parties: Ivan Doherty: Democracy in Balance (on the National Democratic Institute website. A similar point was made, especially by the main speaker, Fink Haysom, in the first conference organised by CASU in March 2007 - you can read the full report here.

There has been a great deal of complaint in Nepal that the main parties have not been inclusive enough in their choice of candidates, and that do not have really democratic internal structures. There is an NDI paper on internal party democracy: Susan Scarrow Implementing Intra-party democracy.

Other NDI paper include one by Kenneth Janda on "Adopting party law" (which briefly discusses the role of a constitution) and by Michael Johnson on Party Finance.

International IDEA also has a programme on political parties, among the topics in which are party finance and internal democracy.

The International Republican Institute also has material on parties.

From the UDNP governance website: "Political Parties in the Legislature"

What can constitutions say about political parties? You can see some examples on this website. The important things is to decide what ought to be in the new Nepal constitution, and then to decide how to express it. Constitutions should not be too detailed; solutions to today's problems may themselves create problems tomorrow.

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