Katz, Richard. "Political Parties". In Comparative Politics, edited by Daniele Caramani. 199-215, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Katz, Richard. "Political Parties". In Comparative Politics, edited by Daniele Caramani. 199-215, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

• A number of potential definitions for 'political party' are given. They are repeated here, although the author favors that given by Robert Huckshorn (201):
• David Hume, "Factions may be divided into personal and real: that is, into factions, founded on personal friendship of animosity among such as compose the contending parties, and into those founded on some real difference of sentiment or interest [...] though [...] parties are seldom found pure and unmixed, either of one kind or the other."
• Edmund Burke, "[A] party is a body of men united, for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some particular principle upon which they are all agreed."
• Walter Bagehot, "The moment, indeed, that we distinctly conceive that the House of Commons is mainly and above all things an elective assembly, we at once perceive that party is of its essence: there never was an election without a party."
• Robert Michels, "The modern part is a fighting organization in the political sense of he term, and must as such confirm to the laws of tactics."
• Max Weber, "Parties' live in a house of 'power'. Their action is oriented towards the acquisition of social 'power', that is to say toward influencing communal action no matter what its content may be."
• Joseph Schumpeter, "A party is not [...] a group of men who intend to promote the public welfare 'upon some particular principle on which they are all agreed.' A party is a group whose members propose to act in concert in the competitive struggle for power."
• Anthony Downs, "In the broadest sense, a political party is a coalition of men seeking to control the governing apparatus by legal means. By coalition, we mean a group of individuals who have certain ends in common and cooperate with each other to achieve them. By governing apparatus, we mean the physical, legal, and institutional equipment which the government uses to carry out its specialized role in the division of labor. By legal means, we mean either duly constituted or legitimate influence."
• V. O. Key Jr., "A political party, at least on the American scene, tends to be a 'group' of a particular sort [...] Within the body of voters as a whole, groups are formed of persons who regard themselves as party members [...] In another sense the term 'party' may refer to the group of more or less professional workers [...] At times party denotes groups within the government [...] Often it refers to an entity which rolls into one the party-in-the-electorate, the professional political groups, and party-in-the-legislature, and the party-in-the-government."
• William Nisbet Chambers, "[A] political party in the modern sense may be thought of as a relatively durable social formation which seeks offices or power in government, exhibits a structure or organization which links leaders at the centers of government to a significant popular following in the political arena and its local enclaves, and generates in-group perspectives or at least symbols of identification and loyalty."
• Ronald Reagan, "A political party isn't a fraternity. It isn't something like the old school tie you wear. You band together in a political party because of certain beliefs of what government should be."
• Robert Huckshorn, "A political party is an autonomous group of citizens having the purpose of making nominations and contesting elections in the hope of gaining control over government power through the capture of public offices and the organization of the government."
• Joseph Schlesinger, "A political party is a group organized to gain control of government in the name of the group by winning election to public office."
• John Aldrich, "Political parties can be seen as coalitions of elites to capture and use political office. [But] a political party is more than a coalition. A political party is an institutionalized coalition, one that has adopted rules, norms, and procedures."
• Political parties serve a number of important functions, allowing political groups to coordinate and maintain discipline on key policy decisions, developing and coordinating the use of common electoral structures to benefit party members during voting, choosing which candidates to support during elections, and collectively representing their members to the voting public (203).
• Originally, the only members of political parties were elected officials. With the advent of mass participation in politics, party membership was extended to individuals, mobilized either individually or through other group affiliations, particularly through cooperation between left-wing political parties and labor unions (209).
• In a number of countries, special laws have been created to govern political parties, which ever otherwise treated as just another private association. Having laws that assign special privileges or responsibilities to political parties reflects the fact that political parties are critical to modern politics and that their healthy function is important to national democracy (210).
• These increased responsibilities have been particularly focused on financing, guaranteeing that corruption and bribery do not become a formal element of political party function. This includes a number of restrictions on spending political party funds and on campaign finance (210-211).
• A number of countries support political parties through government funds, sometimes partially reimbursing the costs incurred during campaigning or supplying represented parties with stipends. Elected officials also receive paid staff and oftentimes free advertising space for campaigns (211-212).