A political party is an organized voluntary union of like-minded people, expressing the interests of some part of society and setting the goal of their implementation by winning state power or participation in power relations.
Approaches to the study of political parties:
o Gambarov singled out 5 characteristics of political parties:
1. Gender of the party is a public group and does not represent the entire population;
2. any p.p. - free social group, which regulates its activities only on the basis of legislation;
3. p.p. - the fate of legal states;
4. strives for power or participation in power;
5. common goals and interests.
o Neumann defined the party as an intermediary between the state and society;
o Uncomplacency: the party maintains its credibility through peaceful means through elections.
Classification of parties.
1) The organizational structure and nature of the membership:
o Human resources - attracting as many voters as possible from different strata of the population, regardless of their ideological orientation;
o Mass - complex structure, high degree of ideologization, social base - lower strata of the population.
2) by political temperament:
o Right - the beginning of personal freedom and public self-government, private property;
o Centric - party of power;
o Left - state guardianship over society, collective property.
Since 1990, Russia has had a multi-party political system.
A prominent representative of the mass, left-wing party is the CPRF (leader - G.Zyuganov). He advocates a multiform economy, where all forms of ownership are present, but the state dominates. At the same time, private ownership of land, which implies its sale, is rejected. The CPRF opposes the economic and political independence of the regions, which means that federalism is effectively denied. The party's main electorate is made up of social strata-outsiders (pensioners, villagers, migrants).
The CPRF is quite an influential party. Following the results of the elections to the State Duma on December 2, 2007, the CPRF took the second place (11.6%).
The SPS is an example of a right-wing, personnel party (leader - N. Belykh). The SPS advocates Russia's integration into the modern economy through the creation of a transnational economic structure, i.e. the attraction of industries and capitals to the Russian market, which do not have formal nationalities and citizenship, but which create jobs in Russia, quality goods for Russian citizens, global competitiveness of the Russian economy, as well as the decentralization of power based on the principles of federalism and local self-government. The SPS is not popular: in the 2007 State Duma elections, the party won only 1% of the vote.
The central, personnel party is the United Russia party (leader - B.Gryzlov). The party's objectives are set by the party:
further development of Russia as a unique civilization, protection of the common cultural space, Russian language, our historical traditions;
Increasing the competitiveness of the economy through entering the innovation path of development, supporting science, developing infrastructure, increasing investments, first of all, in high technologies, in the industry - the locomotives of economic growth;
Ensuring a new quality of life for citizens by continuing to implement priority national projects, further and significantly increasing wages, pensions and scholarships, and providing assistance to citizens in solving housing problems;
support for civil society institutions, promotion of social mobility and activity, and promotion of public initiatives;
Strengthening Russia's sovereignty and defensive capacity and ensuring its worthy place in the multipolar world.
In the past elections, United Russia won with 64.1% of the votes.
In the South of Russia, only regional branches of federal political parties are represented: United Russia, CPRF, SPS, Just Russia, LDPR, etc. In all the constituent entities of the Southern Federal District, United Russia's regional branch wins the local parliamentary elections. Only in Stavropol Krai did Just Russia win the last elections (37.49% vs. 23.87%), which resulted in a political conflict between the legislative and executive branches of power.