Political party is an important part of the country's political system

In translation from Latin, "pars" - "gender", and "partis" - "part". "Partio" - "I share, divide". It turns out that the party is an association of people who are separated from others at the expense of common interests and the maintenance of any ideas, doctrines, ideologies.

A political party is a special system that expresses the interests of the public, its class or strata, unites those representatives who are ready for active activity, directs them to achieve the goal. There is still such a thing as pressure groups. The pressure group and the political party are not the same. For the purposes of political parties - the achievement of power and the implementation of its own program. A political party is a well-organized entity with a clear structure, leaders and hierarchy.

Thus, the signs of a political party are, first of all, an expression of the interests and ideals of social groups, a struggle for power and the embodiment of one's own programs S existence of a certain structure (nucleus, leaders, hierarchy, discipline, etc.), the existence of ideology (party philosophy, program, ideological guidelines), which determines the strategy and tactics of the party.

In society, a political party is a twofold entity that, on the one hand, is a public organization, part of a civil society that can put pressure on the authorities from below. But at the same time factions in the parliament and party leaders are part of political structures. One can say that political parties connect the state and civil society. Due to their existence, individual citizens can influence the policy in the country.

At different times, different types of political parties were singled out. So, they are divided into governmental (entering the parliamentary majority, forming the government in a coalition or alone) and opposition (opposing the government, criticize the current political course).

Maurice Duverger distinguished the intra-formed and outwardly formed parties. On organizational structure, he divided parties into personnel and mass ones.

Stephen Cohen shared the party for a functional purpose. Parties of a parliamentary type, or European, are parties in the traditional sense, with a permanent structure, organization, membership accountability and discipline. Parties for participation in an election campaign or an American party are parties that are created specifically for elections. Parties as a political vanguard or a communist party are the type of parties that have remained today in Cuba, China, and North Korea. Extra-parliamentary parties. They have more similarities with public organizations, but they also have a hidden struggle for influence.

According to the nature of the program guidelines and strategy, political parties are divided into right, centrist and left. They differ in their attitude to private property, the form of state power and ideology, the political course.

In the process of struggle for power, political parties unite into blocs and coalitions, create parliamentary associations. The totality of all parties, associations that participate in political life and in interactions in the struggle for power, is determined as a party system.