Proceedings of the 20th International Academic Conference, Madrid

CHALLENGES TO POLITICAL PARTIES IN EMERGING DEMOCRACY (CHALLENGES TO JORDANIAN POLITICAL PARTIES FOR SUSTAINE

AMIN ALI ALAZZAM

Abstract:

Democracy has been defined by different researchers in various ways. However, almost all researchers agree that democracy refers to a form of government in which the people select their leaders and hold their leaders accountable for their policies and their actions or inaction. The citizens decide who will represent them in parliament and in government. They do so by choosing between competing parties by holding free and fair elections at regular intervals. In addition, it has been argued that no contemporary democracy has excelled without political parties. To meet the requirements of democracy, politics require social organizations that collect interests, and communicate them to the political and governmental institutions. Political parties, beside the other non-governmental organizations of the civil society, are such organizations that collect and aggregate social interests. Accordingly, this study aims at discussing the case of Jordan by identifying the main challenges that face the Jordanian political parties and prevent them from playing that role of collecting and aggregating social interests and prevent them from capturing political power through elections in order to influence policies and implement their programs. These challenges facing political parties have led in conclusion to lose their credibility. Accordingly, the basic questions that need to be answered in this study are: Are political parties considered one of the most important political organizations in politics in Jordan?; Are they have political power to do changes, or are they powerless?; what are the various challenges faced by political party? Are these challenges stem from the parties itself, or is it cultural obstacles, or is it the lack of political will of the political system to give political parties a role by preventing parties from drawing big attention and introducing its political position to gain new followers and members.?. The study concluded that Jordanian political parties facing many challenges-these challenges are considered obstacle to parties and Jordanian democracy alike- the most important are; poor finance, poor political integration, lack of coherent and internal cohesion, institutional and structural challenges, poor internal democracy, lack of political will, a credibility challenges, and social challenges particularly tribalism which keep individuals hesitating from joining other groups.

Keywords: Political parties, Challenges, Democracy, Government, Obstacles.

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2015.020.005

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