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Political institutions are the organizations in a government that create, enforce, and apply laws. They often mediate conflict, make (governmental) policy on the economy and social systems, and otherwise provide representation for the population. In general, democratic political regimes are divided into two types: presidential (headed by a president) and parliamentary (headed by a parliament). Legislatures built to support the regimes are unicameral (only one house) or bicameral (two houses—for example, a senate and a house of representatives or a house of commons and a house of lords). Party systems can be two-party or multiparty and the parties can be strong or weak depending on their level of internal cohesion. The political institutions are those bodies—parties, legislatures, and heads of state—that make up the whole mechanism of modern governments.
Parties, Trade Unions, and Courts
In addition, political institutions include political party organizations, trade unions, and the (legal) courts. The term 'political Institutions' may also refer to the recognized structure of rules and principles within which the above organizations operate, including such concepts as the right to vote, a responsible government, and accountability.
Political Institutions, in Brief
Political institutions and systems have a direct impact on the business environment and activities of a country. For example, a political system that is straightforward and evolving when it comes to the political participation of the people and laser-focused on the well-being of its citizens contributes to positive economic growth in its region. Every society must have a type of political system so that it may allocate resources and ongoing procedures appropriately. A political institution sets the rules in which an orderly society obeys and ultimately decides and administers the laws for those that do not obey.
The Function of a Political System
In 1960, Gabriel Abraham Almond and James Smoot Coleman gathered three core functions of a political system, which include:
- To maintain the integration of society by determining norms.
- To adapt and change elements of social, economic, and religious systems necessary for achieving collective (political) goals.
- To protect the integrity of the political system from outside threats. In modern-day society in the United States, for example, the main function of the two core political parties is seen as a way to represent interest groups and constituents and to create policies while minimizing choices. Overall, the idea is to make legislative processes easier for people to understand and engage with.
Types of Political Systems
The political system consists of both politics and government and involves the law, economy, culture, and other social concepts. The most popular political systems that we know of around the world can be reduced to a few simple core concepts. Many additional types of political systems are similar in idea or root, but most tend to surround concepts of: Democracy: A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. Republic: A state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives and that has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch. Monarchy: A form of government in which one person reigns, typically a king or a queen. The authority, also known as a crown, is typically inherited. Communism: A system of government in which the state plans and controls the economy. Often, an authoritarian party holds power and state controls are imposed. Dictatorship : A form of government where one person makes the main rules and decisions with absolute power, disregarding input from others. Dimension Explanatory factor Nature of variable Theory Social Fractionalization Static The lower the level of fractionalization, the higher the level of democracy Gender inequality Dynamic The lower the level of gender inequality, the higher the level of democracy Middle
The majority of people, who live in rural areas are engaged in agricultural operations for a fixed period. They are not aware of the employment opportunities in towns and industrial centres. The government can help them in getting jobs by opening information centres in rural areas. Thus the government can help in the mobility of labour. The problem of urbanization arises, when the development labour moves from rural to urban areas and it is solved by the government. Such problems relate to housing, drinking water supply, electricity, slums, transport etc.
2. Social and Economic Overheads: The main obstacle in the way of economic development of under-developed countries is the lack of economic overheads such as means of communications and transportations, ports, electricity irrigation etc. In industrially advanced countries, these facilities are provided by private enterprises. ADVERTISEMENTS: But in under-developed countries the private enterprises are not interested to invest because the return is not fruitful and, moreover, such huge investments are beyond the capacity of private sector. Besides this, there is dearth of entrepreneurial ability in under-developed countries and the entrepreneurs prefer to invest in trade, housing, gold, jewellery etc. where the rate of return is very high. Thus, it becomes the responsibility of state to provide these economic overheads in the under-developed countries. It must also provide the education and training facilities and health services to accelerate the pace of economic development. Prof. Meier and Baldwin observes that the expansion of educational facilities and public health
measures in under-developed countries reduces the obstacle to development.
3. Education: ADVERTISEMENTS: Education plays an important role in the process of economic development. According to Myrdal, “To start on a national development programme, while leaving the population largely illiterate seems to be futile. The educational facilities provided in under-developed countries increase their geographic and occupational mobility, raising their productivity and facilitating innovations. The quality of labour is very important for economic growth.” Unskilled workers even working for long hours result in low per capita income. It is through public education that the state can increase the effective labour supply and hence their productivity. There should be free and compulsory provision of primary education and the schools of secondary education should be opened. Various training institutions should be opened to provide training to mechanics, electricians, artisans, nurses, teachers, etc. ADVERTISEMENTS: Thus “Programme of education at the base of the effort to forge the bonds of common citizenship to harness the energies of the people and develop the nation and human resources of every part of the country.” Education is both a consumer and an investment service. Prof. Galbraith regards that investment in educating each and every man is directly productive. He argues that, to rescue farmers and workers from illiteracy may certainly be a goal in itself, but it is also a
the size of population. Improvement in health will decline in death rate which in turn increases the population and it has adverse effect on economic growth. The problem of poverty in under-developed countries cannot be checked, unless the rapid increase in population in checked. In highly advanced countries there is need to reduce the fertility rates. For this family planning clinics should be opened in rural areas, in industrial end other backward areas. There should be incentives to encourage parents to have fewer children. More emphasis should be laid on removing barriers to birth control, raising the marriageable age etc. The problem of population explosion can be avoided in under- developed countries if the family planning programme is adopted on governmental scale. To include, Lewis quotes, One needs to put all the ingredients into this pie, to convert social leaders into seeing the dangers of a high birth rate, so that the taboos and religious sanctions turn against it, instead of favouring it; to raise standards to living and education rapidly, so that women find it convenient to have fewer children and to make widespread propaganda about birth control techniques. Action is needed on all fronts simultaneously.
5. Changes in Institutional Frame Work: Economic development cannot take place in static institutional frame work. The rigid institutional frame work is a positive hindrance in the path of development in UDC. Prof. Paul Streeten has rightly observed that, “The difference between economic growth in advanced countries… and development in so called developing countries is that in the former attitudes and institutions are by and large, adopted to a change and the society has innovations and progress built into the system, while into
the latter attitudes and institutions and even policies are stubborn obstacles to development.” The people of a country must desire progress and their social, economic, legal and political institutions must be favourable to it but in UDC these conditions are largely absent and there is a great need of social and cultural revolution. UNO has rightly observed that, “the people of a country must desire progress and their social economic, legal and political institutions must be favourable to it.” These conditions are largely absent in under-developed countries and in many of them a social and cultural revolution is needed. A United Nations Report observes in this connection that, “there is a sense in which rapid economic progress is impossible without painful adjustments. Ancient philosophies have to be scrapped, old social institutions have to disintegrate, bonds of caste, creed and race have to be burst and large number of persons, who cannot keep up with progress, have to have their expectations of a comfortable life frustrated.” Economic change is not brought about by institutional changes alone. It is caused by both economic and non- economic factors. Thus, there must be a casual relationship between economic and the institutional changes or these changes may be independent of each other. The government play an important role in changing the institutional structure in developing countries and creating conditions for evolution of new institutions. “New inventions may create new commodities or reduce the costs of producing old commodities. New roads, new shipping routes or other improvements in communications may open up new opportunities for trade.
agriculture remains backward, the other sectors of the economy cannot develop because agriculture is the
