Define a political party (Burke; Sartori) and distinguish it from an interest group. 2.

Edmund Burke (18th century, the classic): a party is "a body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed." Joseph Schumpeter: "a party is a group whose members propose to act in concert in the competitive struggle for political power." Giovanni Sartori (Parties and Party Systems, 1976 — the modern standard): a party is "any political group identified by an official label that presents at elections, and is capable of placing through elections, candidates for public office." Working definition: A political party is an organised group of citizens, united by common ideology or programme, that seeks to acquire and exercise governmental power through free elections — by nominating candidates, mobilising voters and forming or contesting governments. Party distinguished from its neighbours (short-question material): • Pressure/interest group — seeks to influence power, not to hold it (FNJ, chambers of commerce); • Movement — a cause coalition, informal, single-issue or revolutionary (the 2062/63 movement was a movement; once it contested elections its core became parties); • Faction — an intra-party subgroup.