Political Party Research Paper

Political parties
Name:
Instructor:
Course:
Date:

Introduction
Political parties are vehicles of change, as political ideas that affect the social, economic and environmentalissues are realized through the political platforms. This is basically due to the fact that political parties are organizations that seek to influence the government policies and the lives of the paeple. Even the bible point out the importance of political systems in Mathew 22:17-21,
‘Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar's.” Then he said to them, therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.’
The people have the mandate to elect the candidates that represent their interests to these offices through the political parties to ensure that their issues are addressed. This is a process that usually involves electoral campaigning towards the electorates, within a given jurisdiction as postulated by the constitution of the country. To further enhance their appeal to the electorates, political parties espouse aspects such ideologies which relate to the struggles and the goals of the electorate at any given time. As such political parties can easily change their ideologies depending on the needs of the electorate at the time. This gives them an element of historical background, as each party is borne of a certain time period and the ideologies related. Depending on the policy platforms that a party uses and the policy changes and their impacts, a party can easily redefine its political power. The people in the party and the support it has from the electorate relative to the political ideology, a party may amass political power and have influence nationally and even internationally. In countries within the Middle East such as Egypt, Iran, Israel and Turkey political parties have also had major impacts relative to policy change, ideologies, political power, governance and even development among other factors. This paper tries to establish some of the aspects such as histories, ideologies, policy platforms, political power source and the level of importance nationally and internationally for some of the major political parties in Egypt, Iran, Israel and Turkey. A good majority of the countries in the Middle East have had a turbulent past, as they struggle to embrace democracy amidst autocratic and theocratic rulers. As such, political parties in this region have a rather complex system of development in light of the condition that they have to work with. The bible does highlight on the need for god in a nation in Psalms 33: 12 , where it states ‘Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!’.
Egypt
This is a country that has had quite a share of the political upheavals within the last five years. In 2013, President Mohamed Morsiwas removed from office by the army following some of the most historical anti-brotherhood protests that graced the country. The political parties have also been cited to be growing weak in light of their attention to seek their own leaders’ agendas other than those of the people. It is also important to mention the fact that aspects of terror within the borders and in the neighboring countries such as Libya, Syria and turkey have also played a major part in the political developments in the country.
Freedom and Justice Party
This is one of the major parties in Egypt and has played a major role within the nation. The party which was formed by the Muslim brotherhood, one of the oldest Islamist organizations in Egypt, has had quite an influence on the political seen. It was founded in April 2011and later officiated in June that year. This was after the January 2011 Egyptian revolutions. Before then the Muslim brotherhood had been barred to form a political outfit. Mohamed Morsi became the first president of the party, while Essam el-Erian became the vice president and Saad El-Katatny was the secretary general. A year later after the inception of the party, Mohamed Morsi gained his presidential win, ousting Hosni Mubarak, who had rule for almost 30 years. Morsi later resigned as the party president and Katatny took office in the 2012 party elections. Relative to the large influence the party held a good majority of the parliamentary seats including the ministerial ones. In 2014, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi who was the military head ousted Morsi and the court ruled the Islamism group a terrorist outfit, rendering the FJP party null and void.
The party, given the background was following a religious democracy with reference to Islamic laws. It followed a structure that would ensure sharia law is followed in the public spaces, while non-Muslims also had their liberty in the personal spaces. To appeal to the people, the party pledged to respect the freedoms of the people, their rights and set up a state that was guided by religious values.
Like the name states one of the policy platforms of the party is freedom and equality. This meant that every Egyptian’s rights are safeguarded as a duty stipulated in the Quran. It also based its policies on security by removing all the corrupt and punitive officers, relative to the lack of security within the state. The party also based its policies on economic and social challenges in the country, prompting a dignified life for the citizens.This is closely tied to developments in tourism, transport, communications and housing among others. Environment, health and pollution were also major platforms as they were legitimately affecting the society at a subtle level.
From the fact that the Islamist group had strong roots within the society its importance cannot be understated , with quite a following of people that were loyal to the cause of brotherhood, the party has massive politicalpower. This would explain why it took the presidential election by storm relative to freedom to hold political offices having been barred before by Hosni. Relative to the strong background of the party, it had massive influence on Islamist ideologies that spread across the country and even spawned influence to the Arab neighbor, such as Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Sudan, Bahrain, Jordanand Kuwait, . This is evident from political statement in the fact that they ousted Mubarak who had ruled for 30 years and had an equally strong regime.
National Democratic Party
Otherwise referred to as the Hizb al-Watani al-Dimuqrati, the National Democratic Partywas founded in the year 1978 by Anwar El Sadat, the then president of Egypt.This was after doing away with the Arab Socialist Union in the previous year. The National Democratic Party was not founded on the basis of democracy, but on a platform to reserve his presidency. As such, although the political system at the time supported multiparty alignment, the ruling party had the entire mandate relative to the executive office. Not much changed during Mubarak’s rule as the party was used to suppress the opposition. During his reign, Mubarak was the chairman and the president, while Safwat al-Sherif was the secretary general. The party announced in 1976 on April 13, that it would be reinvented under the name New National party but that would later fail. On 16thApril, the party was dissolved by the supreme administrative court, citing gross electoral fraud and grand corruption. As a result the party assets were also seized estimated at $70 million US dollars.
The political ideology of the National Democratic Party was not quite clear, but the main themes pointed to a socialist ideology of equity among the members of the state. Much of its efforts were towards uniting the people under the nationalist party. However, it was not democratic as it tried to indicate, as it followed in the footsteps of the previous regime in the ASU reign, where the opposition was sharply discouraged.
Relative to the fact that the party’s ideology related to equality, the main political platform used by the party and the leaders was social justice. This way they tried to show that they wanted all the people to have equal shares of the country’s wealth. At the same time the people would be shown to have better and equal chances at taking advantage of the opportunities and the privileges in the country. The party also looked to revolutionize the market’s economy through enhancing the business arena for the key players, although most of the high productivity firms were sold to the NDP for control.
The party got its political power from its authoritarian system of ruling. By reducing the relevance and inputs of the opposition, the party made sure that it remained in power and most of its maneuvers were successful. Much of the importance that the party had under Mubarak was ensuring that the business elite were amassed with political power nationally and internationally.This is howMubarak maintained a tight leash on the party and its development in the eyes of the public.
Iran
This is a country that has seen a lot of political turbulence through reformist movements, redefining the political landscape. This has also altered it international image, as most of the world leaders hoped that the reformists would see to it that the country embraces democracy. Political parties are slowly losing their influence and seems as though the state is headed towards single political party system or no political parties.
Islamic Iran Participation Front Party
Commonly known as JebheyeMosharekate Iran-e EslaamitheIslamic Iran Participation Front Party is one of the main parties that can be said to be fighting for the liberal views in politics within Iran. This was one of the parties that were established after the Iranian revolution. Specifically, it was founded in 1998 by a group of students after the presidency of Mohammad Khatami came to an end. Relative to is liberal views, it leaders have constantly been arrested or barred from participating in elections.
With support from middle class citizens who are revolutionary, religious scholars and other political leaders that believe in the liberal politics, the party is considered one of the strongest parties that were formed after revolution. It follows a liberal approach, where legal and political freedoms mean more than the traditions culture. As such it embraces modernism other than conservatism to cultural backgrounds.
Relative to its ideology of liberal thoughts and freedoms, the party draws much of its political strength from the support of liberal citizens. The main political platform is pegged on social justice, legal and political freedoms of the people of Iran. Most of the supporters look towards a liberal state that is hindered by the traditions and cultures and embraces modernity and social growth. This is an aspect that gained quite some traction, giving the party high level influence in the nation and in the neighboring states. Most of the importance stems from the fact majority of the middle class citizens are liberal thinkers and are not tied down by the traditions and cultural Islamic believes.
Modern Thinkers Party of Islamic Iran
Founded on October 30th 2006, Modern Thinkers Party of Islamic Iran is one other modernist party supporting moderate conservatism. Among the main players in the party are Amir Mohebbian who is the founder as well as Abolfazi Kolhor, Hossien Noush Abadi and Gholam-Hossein Mohammadi who are co-founders of the party.
Relative to the name of the party, it also takes a liberal approach to ensure that the people of Iran have their basic freedoms and experience social justice. As such, it embraces a modernist approach. It also embraces progressive reforms that are bound to unite Iran with the rest of the world within the Islamic ideals.
The main policy platforms spans between the social, political and economic ideals.Aspects such as freedom and justice are crucial to the party policies while respecting the Islamic ideals as a symbol unity and development. The party also supports political freedom were, opposition parties are not oppressed. Human rights and respect for life, family and property are also part of the party’s platform on policies. As such every citizen is deemed to have equal rights ad discrimination is highly discouraged. To further enhance the lives of the citizens, the party also believes in healthy economic system without inflation while increasing productivity in the manufacturing industries, services and even in agriculture. At the same time all workers should be accorded their rights to enhance the chances for growth. The party especially during the sixth parliament had massive importance as seen from it representation of 140 delegates out of a possible 290. Since then the influence has dwindled as some of the members were disqualified by the guardian council.
Israel
Like most states in the Middle East, Israel has also seen its share of political turbulence in the last several decades. Surrounded by Islamic states, it has also experience hostility given that it is a largely Jewish state. As its political land scape is one of the most interesting, relative to influence inland and to the neighbors.
Likud Party
This is a conglomeration of parties from the right wing that came together to form the Likud Party. Formed in the year 1973, the party associated free center, Herut, National List, the Liberal Party as well as Movement of Grater Israel. Before the Likud Party came to power, the left wing had ruled the country since the time of independence.Following the success with Egypt peace pacts and treaties, the party was again reelected in 1981. Much of the fall of the party from power is attributed to the differences between the populists in the party and the secular liberals. When Begin resigned, he was succeeded by Yitzhak Shamir, who was thensucceeded by Benjamin Netanyahu and led the party to fall to the opposition. Later in 2001, Ariel Sharon took over the leadership and the led the party to even more division with his controversial policies. The party has since seen some turbulent times with costly mergers.
The ideology of the party rests on vision of a greater Israel with the Jewishrule and supremacy.This ideology also led to the fact that, the party considered national security as a major element.Relative to the theme of a greater Israel, the party sought to ensure military strength against the Arabneighbors such as Egypt and Palestine.This aspect of national security and rights of every Jew has also played to a great extent most of the policies that the party has managed to bring to Israel.As such the party had had quite an array of importance within the state and without the state when dealing with the Arab neighbors and exhausting the Jewish culture and supremacy.
Labor Party
Commonly referred to as Mifleget ha-Avodah ha-Yisraelit, in Hebrew, the party was formed in the year 1968, after the labor parties of Israel came together to consolidate their influence.Among the parties that came together include the labor Rafi, Mapai and AhdutHa’avodah.The party draws its inspiration from Zionist ideologies relative to pursuing equality and justice for the Jewish people.The party also draws it ideologies from values related to Jewish labor movement. This aspect points to the social experiences as well as the cultural heritage of the Jewishpeople. Overthe years the party has been on and off the ruling alignment.Most of policies are based on strengthening the Israel economy, with elements of a democratic government, free market principles, political stability and secure borders. The draws it power from the followers who are Zionist and liberal on nature. At the same time due to the fact that it fights for the rights of the Jews across the nation and even in the neighboring states, it has had massive impacts and thus important to the nations and the middle east politics.
Turkey
In the recent past, the country has seen a turbulent political landscape with some of the parts of the country being war torn. This has therefore had massive influence on the well-being the country in terms of policy that affects that state and it neighbors.
Justice and Development Party
Formed in 2001, the Justice and Development Party was a consolidation of several conservative parties and is currently the ruling party in turkey. It has shown a lot of success both at the national elections and in the municipal elections over the years. Much of its success can be attributed to its approach to reject Islamist ideologies and embracing westernized styles. This way the party has been able to remain conservative yet democratic and secular while enhancing growth. Most of its policies including the ...