Alimar Latakani / Special Research for Geostrategy
The Arab region, along with many third world countries, is unique in a surprising feature, and it may in any case be a "comic" feature. For power, in our region we see parties that emerge on a totalitarian basis and under firm and firm leadership as fortresses that defy time and change, and remain as loyal and opposition parties far from power, as if the partisan power over a handful of comrades dispenses them with the power of the state, and spares them from the tasks of change.
Democracy may be the weak point of the institution/law, and perhaps the opposite, and we may not be able to achieve the concept of a political party in third world countries before realizing the institution.
We will quickly review what a political party is in theory, its role and function in society, in order to reach a broader vision that helps us advance our political organizations.
First: the emergence of political parties.
The formation of the initial structures of the parties came after the emergence of electoral committees during the expansion of the number of voters or those entitled to vote in Europe, and in the United States of America in earlier periods where popular elections in the United States began that depend on the principle of general relativity to determine the position of the president, which made this position It is very important that the American President Jackson endorsed the spoils system, / in 1834 / [1] as the president appoints all state functions, which made the work of these committees pivotal in American political life, while in Europe the electoral committees formed the link between the voters whose number increased after The French Revolution, the British constitutional amendments, and the “democratic” wave that swept Europe at the end of the nineteenth century.
This led to the emergence of electoral committees, where the latter developed into liberal parties, and the liberal party is the first form of what is termed an external party, to distinguish it from the forms of parties that preceded it in time and ended with the emergence of the first internal parties that consist of parliamentary blocs [2], or what is termed Researchers and thinkers are of internal origin, as they were nothing but blocs of groups of parliamentarians and notables from the upper classes and nobles, and with the development of the work of the electoral committees and their formation of permanent workplaces representing the parliamentary party, some clubs and ecclesiastical and religious gatherings began to appear, which began with calls for the establishment of parties on an ideological basis. The year 1900 was the starting point for ideological parties, including the Christian parties, the communist parties, and the Masonic party in Belgium [3].
Two types of ideological parties moved to our Arab region, namely communist parties and religious parties, as they formed a theoretical basis for the emergence of nationalist parties, nationalist parties, and secular and conservative parties. emerging, with the exception of the fascist parties and the Stalinist experience [4] that turned against Marxist theory, as most of the ruling parties in the Arab region followed these two repressive types, wearing one of the previous ideological garments.
The emergence of parties was closely associated with the orientation towards democracy, and the parties were established as a logical reflection of the increasing participation of the people in governance, and to express the interests of segments of society and organize their efforts to reach power. In the examples of dictatorship [6] and fascism, it has been transformed into tools for society’s suppression. This is what has been called the party’s bureaucracy, which transforms the party from a societal tool for political development and democratic prosperity, into a force that oppresses the people and abolishes the manifestations of democracy and freedoms. It is necessary to emphasize the “democratic” establishment of the party, as a democracy. Incomplete without guarantees that made the party transform into its fascist or dictatorial form. In the communist example, we find the struggle that arose between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks, which Lenin ended at the expense of democracy [7], and Stalin completed the elimination of the remaining forms of democracy in the Communist Party, while the Nazi Party and the Fascist Party in Italy They are two clear examples of the parties of the one leader and the absence of all forms of democracy, but if we look a little into the emergence of the Nazi Party, we will find that in the period between 1917 and 1921, which is the period in which Hitler returned to the party and extended his full control over it at the end, we will find that the Nazi Party was adopting the principles of "Democracy" in leadership, including the election of the base, general conferences of the party, and political discussions that deal with hot issues at the level of Germany at the time [8], until Hitler was able to turn against all these behaviors with a democratic orientation, so that his party members fall into the trap of the "sole leader", to become the leader The eternal party of the party and then "inspired" Germany. As for the Italian Fascist Party, it witnessed beginnings similar to the Nazi Party, where there were democratic tendencies of the party that Mussolini was able to pounce on and gain complete control over the party and then Italy. What is remarkable about the Nazi and Fascist experiences is the clarity of the totalitarian tendency and its partisan legalization. Unlike many totalitarian parties that claim democracy and which we call bureaucratic, this clarity, and this collective choice made by these totalitarian parties, led to catastrophic results and the death of these parties, and we are not here to discuss the parties that decide to follow a leader directly and clearly, as they disappeared This phenomenon occurred with the end of World War II, and all party pamphlets adopted the principle of partisan democracy, at least in theoretical form.
Hence, it is necessary to emphasize the need to ensure and monitor the party’s democracy, and to question any act that may harm the party’s democracy or any situation that may link it to a person to reduce the party to this person, and thus the party loses its most important organizational characteristics by activating the energies of all members towards achieving the party’s goals, so the party’s democracy and its bureaucracy Two contradictory and mutually exclusive indicators determine the role of the party, whether it serves the people (democratic) or serves a repressive power that oppresses the people (bureaucratic).
Secondly, the definition of a political party
Most of the definitions of the political party revolved around the gathering of a number of people around a certain belief and organizing themselves in order to reach power. It led to the emergence of the party and its goals. Some definitions also touched on additional roles for the party, such as participating in power, contributing to building the state and society, or working to strengthen democracy in a country.
Among the definitions, we will quote three definitions for thinkers that we consider sufficient to give an adequate look at the issue of defining the party, as George Perdo defines the party in the following way [9]: It is every gathering of people who believe in some political ideas and work towards their victory and realization by gathering the largest possible number. Of the citizens around and seek to reach power, and at least influence the decisions of the ruling authority. As for Harold Laswell, he defines the party: “The party is” an organization that presents its candidates in its name in the elections.
He defines the Communist Party as: “the vanguard of the toiling classes that seek to liquidate exploitation in all its forms and manifestations with the aim of reaching the rule of the dictatorship of the proletariat” [10].
Third: The organizational structure of the party
The organizational structure of the party plays a fundamental role in organizing the party's effort and achieving its goals. In terms of the type of party structures, we find that the parties in the Arab region adopt the direct structure, that is, the party composed of affiliated members[11], at least for the time being, and we will need an in-depth historical study on the parties in Syria In the thirties and forties of the past century, or the periods that preceded it, to determine whether indirect parties have emerged, that is, those that consist of unions, associations, and clubs that come together to form a political party, and in the direct structure the party structure seems very dangerous, as it will guarantee the individual rights of the party affiliate It is the one that will closely monitor party activities, events, and the performance of affiliates. It also has a key role in controlling party representation, and reflecting the desires of affiliate members who form the party base on the party leadership, and thus the level of party democracy and the level of party effectiveness in the political life of the country.
From the base up to the leadership, there are several thresholds, starting with the small groups formed by the members, which the communists called the cells, and they are prevalent in the Syrian communist, leftist, socialist parties and other parties that are ideologically far from communism. There are no elections or major events in the country, and the cell can be formed in remote villages and in factories and workshops, and each group of cells is linked to a higher organizational structure at the level of a city or governorate, and these structures are directly linked with the leadership, and this hierarchy is an imitation of the state system, And her way of running the country.
Among its most important characteristics is the high ability to organize the masses on a large scale, to consolidate the partisan ideology among the members, and to shift the base towards political positions studied by the leadership, which makes the influence of the leadership on its base very strong, which makes the partisan leadership a key factor in directing the party to achieve its goals. And the party is dependent on the nature of this leadership or the leading personalities, which leads to an increase in the risks of partisan bureaucracy, and exclusivity in the leadership of these parties[12].
One of the most important global examples of this phenomenon is the Stalinist experience. Despite the rules set by the Communists to ensure the democracy of the Communist Party, Stalin was able to monopolize power and crush his opponents after World War II.
Therefore, it was necessary to elect party leaders directly from the base, under “democratic” conditions such as political freedom in the country in general, freedom of expression, organization of election mechanisms and their monitoring by independent committees far from the leaders, and guaranteeing the rights of party minorities to express their opinion within the party, and their participation In monitoring partisan elections, since any breach of the democratic factors will expose the party’s democracy to severe danger, its impact may be transferred to the party of the individual or the party of the family, and the party will be reduced to the person of the individual, to incline the entire party towards the abyss of bureaucracy that supports the state’s bureaucracy.
Fourth: Functional types of parties
Parties arose in response to political demands imposed by the natural evolution of ruling systems, as they formed broad frameworks for political expression and for getting closer to representing peoples and achieving their demands, through the accession of their parties to power and the initiation of implementing their political programs upon which they were elected. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the ideological parties that emerged from a different vision of the methods and forms of government and the relationship between the citizen, the authority and the state, but they and their various types arose as democratic parties that raise the issue of deliberation of partisan leadership and equal opportunities for members, and then some of them were transformed under certain political conditions that the parties or the countries affiliated with went through. For totalitarian parties, and one of the most important of these circumstances was the Second World War, which appointed Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin as the eternal leaders of their parties, but these parties had been democratically established, at least among the elements of one party, or among the elements of one class.
Trotsky analyzed the objective and subjective reasons that led to the transformation of the Russian Communist Party into a totalitarian party, and the defeat of Mussolini and Hitler came as an end to the era of totalitarianism in those parties, while the victorious Stalin continued as a leader who killed all his opponents until his death. The phenomenon of the military dictator ruling the country and the eternal leader of the ruling party (Stalinism) moved to many Of the countries and systems of government, including Syria, in which the ruling Baath Party and its Secretary-General are still the eternal leader of the party, the state, and society. To the peoples of the region for these regimes, or at least for their lies regarding democratic affairs.
From the foregoing, we see that the actual function of the political party is to communicate the desires and interests of citizens to state facilities from the highest body to the lowest level, and to help people achieve their prosperity and goals by supporting the democratic protocols followed in this or that country, and to open platforms for thinkers, philosophers, and politicians to propose solutions to the problems they face. Countries and people object, but this job is the natural or logical one. Are there other jobs?
We had identified the desire of the renewed totalitarian regimes to present themselves as democratic regimes, and among their methods for that is their creation of a friendly opposition that fulfills the required purpose of it. Completion of the representative role, in addition to destabilizing and dispersing the ranks of the real opposition.
However, it is possible for parties to appear in conditions of weakness of totalitarian regimes, trying not to provoke these regimes and waiting for the appropriate time to play the role of the real opposition. However, this matter requires a strong partisan structure that is capable of renewal, persuasion and advancement of the political life of the state when its conditions are favorable, as we can intensify jobs. The responsibility of the political party in the democratic case is as follows: The oversight function: Political parties are tools of oversight to limit the arbitrariness of the existing authority, either through their presence in Parliament as opposition parties defending citizens or indirectly as parties outside the power.
Communication function: as political parties are communication channels linking the base (the people) to the summit (the political system), they are the force most in contact with the popular groups and are aware of their problems and issues, so they work to raise those demands for the system, discuss it in them, and deliver the outputs of the political system to the people.
Drawing up the general policy of the state: as it participates in decision-making and public policies and monitors their implementation.
The role of political development: the political parties contribute to drawing up strategies for political development in the country and work to implement them.
Fifth: Two basic conditions for the effectiveness of a political party are the party's democracy and its bureaucracy
The character of democracy in the party is realized in the inability of the leadership to confiscate the opinion of the members, and to create a real direction for the party that guarantees drawing the interests of its members, away from the desires of the leadership that may intersect with the desires of the authority, especially since the authority is the one that granted the license to these personalities to form parties, and thus this can The parties, whether the democratic structure is to play a favorable political circumstance, to play a real opposition role, and to remove leaders who party members suspect that they play dual roles inside and outside the party, and the party’s democratic structure can constantly pressure the leaders to engage in positions that affect their interests that may conflict in one way or another. In another with the interests of the authority, and in a security or repressive state and generally non-democratic, it is possible for any person to be subjected to arbitrary arrest by the security services. It seems difficult to create opposition democratic structures within the entity of the state, as any party figure may be subject to arrest or absence at any time It was if its positions contradicted those of the authority, but it is theoretically possible to launch a party with a democratic structure compromising with the authority, or for the authority itself to want to build a real opposition, and despite the remoteness of this possibility, it exists, so the parties must achieve the principles of democracy [13], In addition to creating democratic guarantees to achieve them, the most important of which is direct election, oversight by the partisan minority, financial and political transparency, rotation of partisan leadership, and distribution of sensitive partisan tasks to a larger bloc of leadership, moving away from focusing on a particular partisan figure and intimidating it and limiting the party to its person. Immediate political action and partisan capacity on regulation.
The declared partisan objectives when forming an ideological party aiming to attract the public towards it in order to provide it with actual solutions to the problems and crises that these masses suffer from at all levels are the cornerstone of this building, and it is very important for any party that wants to present its goals that they be based on solid and clear foundations. Immediately, it must present new solutions that are not proposed by other, older parties, which may possess organizational capabilities and perhaps means and tools that the nascent party does not possess, and this doctrinal and ideological base from which the goals and solutions were launched has an essential function to attract the public towards this party and join its ranks. This ideology is a true expression of the public's desires and political interests.
Therefore, it is very important to ascertain the seriousness of this party and its political capabilities by examining the ideology by presenting it with something new that constitutes an important change that serves the interests of the public or a group of this audience, and also, very importantly, whether the party was able to expand its popular base, and whether this base expanded on the ideological basis. Or based on the political performance of the party during this period, did it remain stable or did it witness setbacks and losses? All these factors constitute signals about the effectiveness of this party and its political capabilities.
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the reviewer:
1- Max Weber, Science and Politics as a Craft, p. 324
2- Max Weber, Science and Politics as a Craft, p. 309
3- Maurice Defrigier, Political Parties, p. 14
4- Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed, p. 37: “Stalin's efforts focused on liberating the party apparatus from its control by members.
5- Max Weber, Science and Politics as a Craft, p. 33: “This calm situation, the control of notables and parliamentarians, in particular and radically contradicts the structures of modern organization in parties, as these forms are from the womb of democracy.” Parliamentarians are meant before the general public has the right to vote, as here it is synonymous with the term notables
6- Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed, p. 35: “The internal system of the Bolshevik Party is democratic.”
7- Were the Mensheviks (and with them Marx) right against Lenin?
Al-Akhbar newspaper, Were the Mensheviks (and with them Marx) right against Lenin?, Muhammad Sayed Rasas, Wednesday 30 May 2018
8 - Quote: "At a special party conference on July 29, 1921, Hitler replaced Drexler as party leader by a majority of 533 to 1, the committee was dissolved, and Hitler was given almost absolute powers as the party's sole leader. He would hold that position for the remainder of his life. Hitler soon gained the title of Führer ("leader") and after a series of intense internal struggles, it was accepted that the party would be governed by the Führerprinzip ("leader principle"). Under this principle, the party was a highly centralized entity operating strictly from the top down, And Hitler was at the top as the absolute leader of the party." Hitler 1889-1936, Author: Ian Kershaw 2008, pp. 83, 103.
9- Burdau G.Traite De Science Politique.Cite Par.Menouni(A).Droit Constitutionnel.P141
10- Kamel Zohairy, Encyclopedia of Socialist Crescent, citing Tariq Fathallah Khader, The role of political parties under
. The Parliamentary System (Comparative Studies), (Lebanon: B.D.N., 1986), p. 40
11- Maurice Defergier, Political Parties, p. 27
12- Maurice Defergier, Political Parties, p. 62 “The organization of the radical party is designed to stifle the voice of the affiliate and to give power in the party to small, oligarchic groups.”
13- The Concept of the Democratic Party.. Preliminary Notes, Published Date: 3/10/2004, Dr. Ali Khalifa Al-Kuwari, Al-Jazeera Net website, click here to view
