(Part 31)
Parties and Their Effects on Disintegration
Among the criteria of categorizing parties, an important criterion is the differentiation of “Constitutional Parties” from “Revolutionary Parties”. Constitutional parties agree that there is a difference between a party and a government. Those parties accept the rights and privileges of other parties and the rules of electoral competition and observe them. It means, they know that they simply gain power by people’s vote and that they will simply be removed from power by the people’s vote too. In liberal democracies, all major and main parties by those characteristics, are adherence to the constitution. But in terms of revolutionary parties, this concept cannot be considered; whether they are left or right, they are still anti-establishment or anti-constitutional parties. The goals of those parties are to gain power, destroy the constitution and the existing political system. When such parties come to power, they suppress rival parties and establish a permanent relationship with the government. In fact, those parties convert the constitution and the existing system and also build a one-party system. In single-party systems, both communist and fascist, the distinction between party and state becomes so blurred that the “Ruling Party” actually replaces itself with the government; by creating a hybrid (party-state) system. For example, in the Soviet Union, the General Secretary of the Communist Party also acted as the head of the Executive Branch or the head of the government. There is such a structure in China at the moment.
Inclusive or mass parties are the ones that significantly reduce their ideological activities in order to attract the largest number of voters. Clear example of those parties are the Social Democratic Party in Germany, the Labor Party in Great Britain, the Republican and Democratic Parties in America and the Christian Democratic Union Party in Germany.
The First Political Parties in Afghanistan
During the reign of Mohammad Zahir Shah, making political relations with the Soviet Union, caused the Soviet Union culture penetrate to Afghanistan and led to the creation of the Leftist Parties. But the correct understanding of the communism school, all the way from the Soviet Union to Afghanistan was difficult to comprehend, and the reason was the low level of literacy and few translations of foreign works in the country. Having cultural relations with the neighboring and co-language country of Iran was another factor that translated books of communism was taken to Afghanistan and introduced to the youth the principles and ideology of Marxism. (Tanin 1384 No, 129)