Political parties and democratic ideology
The relationship of dependence between the democratic institutional-political framework wherein political parties operate and, otherwise, between political organisations and the consolidation of the aforementioned democratic political regime is an extremely complex one. However, in political theory – both prescriptive and empirical – the idea according to which the health of a democracy is directly influenced by the institutional health of the political organisations to which its citizens subscribe to express their ideas has become an axiom. In this game there are, of course, a wide series of other factors, such as the constitutional framework, the form of state, electoral legislation, the economic system, political culture or international influences. The aim of this study is to argument that all these factors do not diminish the role played by political parties in the construction of a democratic environment wherein as many as possible of the citizens’ interests can be expressed and of a decision-making mechanism able to guarantee the balance of the political system.
Keywords: political parties, democratic ideology, associative culture, pluralism, political-institutional syndrome, political-cultural syndrome.
