Political parties first came into being, and still remain at their core, as social formations. They give flesh to coherent political ideas, formed and enunciated in the process of social discussion. They aspire for political power.

In the course of their development, political parties bring together groups of politicians permanently united in entertaining and promoting a set of ideas. They enable like-minded groups to discuss and clarify their common ideas among themselves, formulate them in a policy or programme, and defend that programme in discussion against other groups in the same social area.

In the culmination of their development, political parties grow into organisations, with their own recognised leaders, for the purpose of implementing their programme, first by securing a majority of votes and then by empowering their leaders to govern on the strength of democratic legitimacy.

Political parties thus serve as mediators between the process of social discussion and the practice of political action.

Clear objectives

In the early days, political parties were loose aggregations or floating bodies of opinion. It was the emergence of the Cabinet system that gave them a clear objective – the winning of political power and the actual conduct of government. The Cabinet system depended on the definite organisation of political parties.

Universal suffrage opened the political floodgates. The electorate had to be mobilised under disciplined party control. A party-controlled electorate makes possible a party-controlled parliament. The tendency to a party-controlled parliament is naturally accentuated by a strong Cabinet system and the growing power of Cabinet ministers to manage Parliament and its business.

Our system of government, as it stands today, is four-pronged, involving parties, the electorate, Parliament and Cabinet. In their interaction, they must balance each other.

The electorate, feeling its own importance, may claim to impose its mandate at all costs and in all circumstances. Parliament, in a mood of collective pride, may seek to impose a system of parliamentary autocracy for the duration of its term. Cabinet may have lofty ideas about its sovereignty and may use its majority and its Whips to discipline Parliament. And its managers may manipulate a victorious party or coalition.

In all such situations, the democratic process would be vitiated by arrogance – with consequences that are all too familiar with local public opinion.

Sovereign merit

A just and proper system of parliamentary democracy depends on a spirit of give and take in the mind of the general electorate. It depends equally on a spirit of balance and accommodation among the four “agencies” through which it works: parties, electorate, Parliament and Cabinet.

The two-party system balances the gravitational pull and has, over time, obscured the division between Left and Right, and between progressive and conservative factions in society. Under a viable two-party system, there is room for various shades of the Left and Right on both sides of the political divide. Purists may deprecate this, but it is part of wisdom to reconcile the chemistry of maturity with the alchemy of inflexibility.

There is a sovereign merit in the two-party system. Each party or side is permeated by an internal force of attraction but, in relation to the other, repulsion is the driving force.

The term “Loyal Opposition” is at once significant and important in our system. It signifies a single nation in common allegiance to the Constitution. Cabinet advises the President of the Republic. But potential advisers lie in waiting in the shadow Cabinet.

The Opposition supplies constant criticism, which is as indispensable as constructive creation. It fans the embers of discussion, and ensures that the flame is bright and clear. The Opposition offers the possibility of an alternative government at the ready. It is at hand for the nation if and when a new hand is required at the helm.

Electoral enlightenment

In this age of pluralism and electoral enlightenment, it is the electorate that is gaining the upper hand. The political parties no longer wield with ease the power to regiment public opinion as of old.

The floating vote is consciously coming into its own, and is steadily becoming more conscious of its strength. It has become a power to be reckoned with, and one that will not suffer gladly any form of arrogance – whether it comes from within the party, or from Cabinet or from Parliament.

We might at this time be removed from direct democracy and a system of government where the electorate makes instant decisions by referendum on a range of basic issues, but we have travelled far enough to acquire the potential to tame the party system.

It would take a fair degree of political maturity on the part of the electorate to mobilise its resources and to demand the full attention of the respective political machines.

At the recent Euro parliamentary election, the Maltese electorate proved that it could throw its weight collectively to produce a massive swing – one that changed the political topography in a fell swoop. The electorate is on the qui vive, as confirmed by successive opinion polls.

The fact that the electorate can reassert itself again at any time is enough to concentrate the mind of the managers of the respective political machines

These same managers will bring their influence to bear on their respective parliamentary group and the party in office will doubtlessly feed Cabinet with its sounding of public opinion.

Observers of the Maltese political scene must have noticed the quicker pulse beat of the Maltese electorate, and the measured response of the political parties. The change has been perhaps slow but definitely for the better. And the pace is quickening as taxation and rising living costs take their toll, and the economy fails to gather enough momentum to take flight.

It is the role of the media to highlight this change and to give the electorate more power to its elbow. Whether the media is rising to the occasion is another matter.

In my considered opinion, the electorate has seen itself in action and is realising that it has the power to shape its destiny.

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