Political Party vs Political Ideology: Difference and Comparison

A political party and political ideology are two wholly different things. One refers to a group of people that acquire and exercise power.

Key Takeaways

1. A political party is an organized group of individuals with shared values, beliefs, and objectives seeking to gain political power and influence by competing in elections. In contrast, a political ideology is a set of principles, values, and beliefs that guide an individual’s or group’s understanding of politics and society.
2. Political parties adopt specific political ideologies to guide their actions, policies, and goals, although they may sometimes incorporate elements from various ideologies to appeal to a broader audience.
3. Political parties and political ideologies shape a nation’s political discourse and direction. Still, a political party is an organizational entity, while a political ideology is a system of thought.

Political Party vs. Political Ideology

The difference between a Political party and a Political ideology is that a party is created to win elections and operate the government. A political ideology is trying to work a different set of ideas through a different angle to give a fair view of how society should be.

A political party can be described as a group of people who came forward together to elect candidates for election, win the election, and then operate the government.

A political ideology consists of many things, such as – values, opinions, beliefs, justification, etc. It will offer you a different perspective and diverse political ideas.

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Comparison Table

Parameter of Comparison	Political party	Political ideology
Goal	The main goal of every political party is to win an election.	In this case, it is all about showing a fresh perspective regarding how a society can be better.
Persuasion	Political party members will try to persuade people to get votes, so they get re-elected and remain in their position.	Political ideology will go with socialism, which means satisfying human needs directly by providing them with goods and stuff.
Nature	When a political party comes into power and position, they decide how to operate and run the government.	On the other hand, political ideologies will make policies for the public to promote collective goods and stuff.
Strategy	Political parties need the majority of seats to win an election. If unable to do so, they make allies to hold the majority of seats to form a government.	In this case, the primary strategy is to improve society in different ways.

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What is Political Party?

A political party can be described as an organization or group of people who come together to win the election and form the government. They need to win the majority of seats in the parliament to form a government.

Political parties help to process government policies, work, etc. Since they form the government, they indulge themselves in the progress of the state or country.

Like every other thing, political parties also have some key characteristics that we all notice –

1. They persuade people to vote for them so that they can form the government.
2. It mainly refers to a group of people who are working towards common goals.

Political parties will work together and create new laws and policies for the betterment. There are quite a handful of political parties in every state/country that wants the power of leadership to govern a state or country.

 

What is Political Ideology?

Political ideology is a system of definite views, a different set of ideas, conceptions, and perceptions by a political party.

Political ideology would describe how one governing body should distribute/allocate power and how properly it must be used.

In the modern era, political ideology is about a “set of beliefs about the proper order of society and how it can be achieved.” There are a few different sets of rules that are included in political ideology, and those are –

1. Liberalism is a political ideology, which means the society that we live in is characterized by freedom of thought and expression.
2. Socialism is another ideology that refers to a theory. It says the community and not individuals should own any property or natural resources.
3. Communism is the next one, almost similar to socialism, with minor changes.

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Main Differences Between Political Parties and Political Ideology

1. Political parties need the maximum seats to win, whereas ideology works with a strategy to improve lives.
2. The nature and work of both these political parties and ideologies are different from each other.

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References

1. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fa66/9d5d08fc37d13f0a3426b8628ea0b461df4a.pdf
2. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09644016.2012.698887