Tolerance and Management of Factions
- This coalition-like character of the Congress gave it an unusual strength. Firstly, a coalition accommodates all those who join it.
- Therefore, it has to avoid any extreme position and strike a balance on almost all issues. Compromise and inclusiveness are the hallmarks of a coalition.
- Secondly, in a party that has the nature of a coalition, there is a greater tolerance of internal differences, and the ambitions of various groups and leaders are accommodated.
- That is why, even if a group was not happy with the party’s position or with its share of power, it would remain inside the party and fight the other groups rather than leaving the party and becoming an ‘opposition’.
- These groups inside the party are called factions. The coalitional nature of the Congress party tolerated and encouraged various factions.
- Some of these factions were based on ideological considerations but very often these factions were rooted in personal ambitions and rivalries. Instead of being a weakness, internal factionalism became a strength of the Congress.
- The system of factions functioned as a balancing mechanism within the ruling party. Political competition therefore took place within the Congress.
- In that sense, in the first decade of electoral competition, the Congress acted both as the ruling party as well as the opposition. That is why this period of Indian politics has been described as the ‘Congress system’.
Era of One Party Dominance| Class 12 Polity Notes
Era of One-Party Dominance: Faced with serious challenges of nation-building, leaders in many other countries of the world decided that their country could not afford to have democracy. They said national unity was their first priority and democracy would introduce differences and conflicts. Therefore many of the countries that gained freedom from colonialism experienced non-democratic rule. It took various forms: nominal democracy but effective control by one leader, one-party rule, or direct army rule. Non-democratic regimes always started with a promise of restoring democracy very soon. But once they established themselves, it was very difficult to dislodge them.
Table of Content
- One Party Dominance
- Conducting the First General Election in India was no Less than a Challenge
- The First General Election in India
- Opinions Related to the First General Election in India
- Congress Dominance
- The General Election – Ugly Truth
- Main Parties
- Nature of Congress Dominance
- Congress as a Social and Ideological Coalition
- Tolerance and Management of Factions
- Emergence of Opposition Parties