Documentation Centre and Archives on Feminism, Equal Opportunities and Women's Studies
Documentation Centre and Archives Politics is about conferring, debating, making choices, defending points of view and compromising. In a democracy all sections of society have the floor. Our democracy is based on decision making by mutual agreement. The majority represents the opinion of at least half of the people. Not all of those people do the talking individually. They allow politicians to represent them. Since politicians are stronger in a group than as an individual, they join forces in political parties.
A political party unites people who support the same ideas, live by the same principles, share a common vision and belief. The party programme combines desires, values, views and convictions of a section of the population. Either the programme is based on a view of society (e.g. socialism), a specific theme (e.g. environment) or a pressure group (e.g. senior citizens).
Although they are not mentioned in the Constitution, the political parties actually have power. They decide who figures on the list of candidates and determine the order. After the elections, parties negotiate among themselves to form a governing majority.Political parties strive at getting power in order to determine policy.
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