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Article: Of political parties great and small: democracy and political parties.
- Article from:
- Current
- Article date:
- December 1, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1994 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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For most of this century, political science orthodoxy has held that American political parties need strengthening, to the end of improving the quality of the nation's democracy. For the last 20 years, the Committee for Party Renewal has carried high the torch for stronger parties with this message embodied in its statement of principles: "Parties are indispensable to the realization of democracy. The stakes are no less than that."
The committee believes that party organization must be revitalized and refurbished, that political parties need to be more coherent and programmatic participators in government, and that the ties of individual voters to parties need to be ...