Role of Political Parties in China and Peru - Essay Example

in the case of China, it is a single-party rule, with no scope for multi-parties in the near future, while Peru has a thriving democracy and so has a multiparty system.

The role of political parties or multi-parties in China is very limited or even non-existent. With the Chinese Communist party having a tight hold on the governance from the mid part of the 20th century till now, no other political party has shown signs of establishing, let alone fighting against the omnipresent Communist party. China allows a limited number of non-Communist party candidates to stand in the elections for Township’s People Congress, which is the only direct election in China, but that number is very minimal and also their chance of winning is also very less. Apart from the Township’s People Congress, Chinese citizens can’t vote in any of the upper-level elections, including in the selection of members for the National level Congress, which only further decides the Head of State. (Shively). So, with the Chinese citizens having no power to select their President, Prime Ministers, provincial heads, etc, it may not be possible as well as feasible for a political party to develop and function.

On the other hand, Peru is a strong democracy with long democratic traditions has a number of political parties. (Fall of Fujimori). While China has a single-party system, Peru has close to 30 parties. These parties only contest the elections for the district and provincial legislature and importantly to elect the President. However, as a party-list proportional representation system is followed, a candidate will not directly stand in the elections and seek votes in his/her name. Instead, citizens will vote for a party, and based on the votes received, each party and its party candidates will be allocated a certain number of seats in the legislative assembly. Although, democracy and direct voting are practiced in Peru, in the lower levels, indirect form of elections is being carried out with candidates not directly elected by the people.

So, the only similarity between the role of political parties or parties in China and Peru is that they have at least one election, in which the party members themselves elect the representatives instead of people directly electing them. That is, in China, candidates for all levels other than Township’s People Congress, are elected by the elected and elected representatives, with no role for people, and on the same lines, Peru’s legislative assembly candidates are selected by the party based on the votes received, with no direct role for the people. However, the other main difference, apart from the number of political parties in China and Peru, is the Head of State is directly elected by the people in Peru, while people don’t directly elect him/her in China. That is, for Peruvian Presidential elections, the multi-parties will put their own candidates in the first round, with the top two participating in the run-off. However, as mentioned above, the selected representatives only select the Chinese President, with no role for citizens.