Considerations on political parties

• Author: Erhard Niculescu
• Position: Teaching Assistant, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, 'Nicolae Titulescu' University of Bucharest (e-mail: erhard.niculescu@yahoo.de).
• Pages: 114-121

CONSIDERATIONS ON POLITICAL PARTIES

Erhard NICULESCU

Abstract

Political parties are the engine of social life, without which citizens would not be able to express

political will. According to the law of political parties, they fulfill a public mission guaranteed by the

Constitution. That is why, considering the subject very current, we considered it important to analyze

in this study, in the notion of political pluralism: the concept of political party but also its constitutional

dimension. To this end, the study shows the view of the doctrine combined with the jurisprudence of the

Constitutional Court.

Keywords: Constitution, political party pluralism, citizen, jurisprudence.

1. Introduction*

Political parties have had an

overwhelming role in the modernization of

political life

1

. Strictly, parties are more than

a century and a hal f old

2

. According to

Giovanni Sartori relationship between

citizens and parties is d efined as: "citizens

in Western democracies are represented by

the parties

3

". It is stated that the term party

was used to designate factions that divided

the ancient cities and clans of the Middle

Ages and clubs of deputies from the

revolutionary assemblies and committees

which prepared the census election in

constitutional monarchies

4

. In the U.K.

political parties emerged in the form of

affinity groups in Parliament, associated

* Teaching Assistant, PhD Candidate, Faculty of Law, “Nicolae Titulescu” University of Bucharest (e-mail:

erhard.niculescu@yahoo.de).

1

Cristian Ionescu, Compared Constitutional Law, Ed.C.H.Beck, Bucharest, 2008, p. 25.

2

Dan Claudiu Dănișor, Constitutional Law and Political Institutions, Ed.Europa, Craiova,1995, p. 93

3

Giovani Sartori, Representational Systems, in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, vol.13, 1968,

p. 471.

4

Dan Claudiu Dănișor, op.cit., 1995, p. 93.

5

Constitutional documents of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Translation and notes

E.S.Tănăsescu, N. Pavel, Ed. All Beck, Bucharest, 2003, p. 15.

6

Ioan Muraru, Elena Simina Tănăsescu, Constitutional Law and Political Institutions, edition 14, vol II, Ed. CH.Beck,

Bucharest, 2013, p. 23.

7

Dimitri Georges Lavroff, Les partis politiques, Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1970, p. 101.

with networks of relations in the country,

groups that divided in terms of governance

in fact

5

.

Therefore, we explain further, what

the political parties are, combining doctrine,

case law a nd the jurisprudence of the

Constitutional Court of Romania. As rightly

pointed o ut in doctrine, t he concept of

political party allows the correct

interpretation of art. 8 of the Constitution in

the sense that political parties contribute to

defining and expressing the political will of

the citizens

6

. We speak of this view of the

special relationship that exists between the

state and political parties. State expresses

the community, while political parties

express ideologies and interests of social

groups that coexist within the nation

7

.