What is a party?

Based on the readings, I've drafted a pretty basic definition for political parties.

A party is an inevitable product of a democratic government, consisting of an organized group of individuals who share similar ideas about how government should function, and who actively work to elect a member of their group to serve in office.


First of all, I stated that parties are inevitable based on both Federalist papers 10 and 51. In #10, James Madison seems to argue against political parties, stating that parties, "inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other than to co-operate for their common good. So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions and excite their most violent conflicts." Madison believes that political parties will encourage discord and partisan bickering rather than collaborate to improve quality of life.

However, Madison admits that you cannot destroy parties; you would have to either "destroy liberty," which is unthinkable and borderline treason, or by "giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests," which is impossible. Therefore, parties must form in order to allow each person to express his opinion. And when multiple people share the same opinions, parties emerge.

But whether or not political parties are a positive or negative result of democracy seems to be a matter of opinion and circumstance. When looking at this election, for instance, Washington's opinions are right on the ball. "agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection." All candidates seemed more intent on bashing each other than emphasizing bipartisanship. However, when both parties do collaborate, important and necessary bills do get passed, like this most recent one regarding tax breaks for clean energy production and for buying energy-efficient cars: http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/news/economy/energy_bills/index.htm?cnn=yes