Examine the role of Political Parties in a democratic country.

Political parties fill political offices and exercise political power. They do so by performing a series of functions:

1. Parties contest elections.
   
2. Parties put forward different policies and programmes and the voters choose from them.
   
3. Parties play a decisive role in making laws for a country.
   
4. Parties form and run governments. Parties recruit leaders, train them and then make them ministers to run the government in the way they want.
   
5. Parties that lose elections play the role of the opposition to the parties in power, by voicing different views and criticising the government for its failures and wrong policies.
   
6. Parties shape public opinion. They raise and highlight issues.
   
7. Parties provide people access to the government machinery and welfare schemes implemented by governments.