office despite narrow electoral support are unlikely to initiate poverty allevi-
ation programmes. In democracies with a small number of parties and stable
party systems, such as Costa Rica and Sri Lanka, politicians seek broad elec-
toral alliances, including links with pro-poor non-governmental organiza-
tions. In democracies with fragmented systems, such as Brazil and Thailand,
with unstable support for a large number of parties that are based on individ-
ual leadership rather than programmes, parties respond to narrow interests,
a lack of incentives to provide poverty alleviation programmes, and the
vetoes of coalition partners. Even elected authoritarian regimes, such as
Mexico and Indonesia, where elections are held regularly, but where one
party dominates in a virtual one-party system, have incentives to respond to
the needs of the rural poor if confronted by a pro-poor opposition movement,
a loss of urban support, a loss of credibility as a developmental regime, or
demands for democratization. However, such programmes are also more
likely to be instruments of social control than empowerment (Niles, 1999).
Finally political parties have been seen as necessary for political stability.
Huntington has produced the most explicit statement on this relationship. In
his view, stability depends on a society being able to absorb the increasing
level of political participation by the new social forces generated by mod-
ernization. Parties offer the principal institutional means of organizing that
participation in constructive and legitimate ways, especially if the parties
are created before the level of participation gets too high. A combination of
high levels of participation and strong party organization provides a defence
against anomic politics and violence. The risk of military intervention, for
example, increases if political parties are too weak. So ‘the stability of
a modernising political system depends on the strength of its political
parties. A party, in turn, is strong to the extent that it has institutionalised
mass support’ (Huntington, 1968, p. 408).
Party ideology
Inevitably, given their appeal to certain class interests, the ideological positions
of Third World parties have often resembled those of their First and Second
World counterparts. Western ideologies have been adapted to provide a com-
mon framework of values for very heterogeneous societies and to strengthen
national integration. Both socialism and communism have been deployed in
the Third World for such aims. But they have been adapted to the particular
context in which they are to be a guide to action. Special versions have been
developed, such as Tanzania’s African socialism which purports to draw on
138 Understanding Third World Politics