What is a Political System

What is a Political System?

Political system is a social institution dealing with the governance of a state and its relationship with the people. Sometimes loosely referred to as polity, political system of a country generally denotes the structure of institutions that constitute the State and its Government. It delineates the framework and form of inter-relationships between institutions and organs of the State-the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary-and the linkage of each with the people. Political system gives shape and form to some fundamental principles round which politics and political institutions have developed or are proposed to be organised to govern the country. Political system also consists of the manner in which the rulers are selected or elected, governments are formed and political-decisions taken. Political interactions in society and structures and procedures for decision making are all rooted in a country's political system.

Used in a broader sense, political system also encompasses within its fold international or supra-national organisations like the United Nations, European Union etc. However, despite all the emphasis on globalisation and efforts at nations coming together to form supra-national regional organisations and even governmental institutions, the nation-states and the sentiments of nationalism remain the most dominant. The results of the 2005 referenda over the European Constitution underlined the deep rooted susceptibilities in the matter of eroding national sovereignty in any way. The national political systems remain the most important. These may generally include non-state institutions like the political parties, as also political behaviour and processes of interaction with other institutions and citizens.

To freely paraphrase and adopt the Hegelian concepts, political system is a result of social evolution through ages. Human beings are by nature social. One cannot live alone. Hence, in order to fulfil elementary needs of food, sex and primitive protection, men and women were naturally inclined to live in a family. But the family was inadequate to satisfy the multifarious needs of the multi-faceted human personality. For better fulfilment, a wider organisation developed, namely - civil society. The diverse human needs were better satisfied in civil society. 'Civil society' evolved laws based on the material needs of human beings. The next higher stage in the process of evolution was the emergence of a 'Political System'. It emerged as a result of the realisation of the "commonality of the interests of the community" as a whole. The civil society, even after the emergence of the State continued "to perform the common place business", but, it came to gradually depend more and more upon the State "for intelligent supervision and moral significance".