Anti-Partisan

Political parties are organizations originally designed to serve the political needs of people, but they have been problematic from their inception. Numerous thinkers have cataloged the problems with political parties over the course of several centuries. As political parties have continued to evolve, partly in response to some of the critiques, further problems continue to emerge. Rather than serving people and their needs, political parties tend to become an end in themselves, reducing people into roles that serve political parties. This study argues that the problems with political parties are so significant and endemic to their natures as organizations that they should be abolished, building on arguments from Simone Weil and others. Whatever functions political parties serve can be served by other institutions and in some cases need not be served at all. In addition to the negative argument against political parties, this study begins the positive argument concerning how democracy might proceed in the absence of political parties, particularly with regard to the conduct of elections and the behavior of legislators.