Create a Political Party
What is described here are the basics of creating a new political party. Usually it is a very long and complicated process that needs a charismatic personality to start it. This explanation will give you a general idea of what it involves.
Contents
Steps
Finding Your Support Base
- Have support from a group of like-minded people who are your friends. Preferably they should be a steady group of dedicated friends who are talented in at least one field each, for example a specialist in economic policies, a good orator, a good writer, a researcher, etc. To develop a circle of friends see How to Make Friends.
- Convince this group of the need for creating a new political party. See How to persuade people for options.
Making a Manifesto
- Create a 'charter' of sorts. This is booklet that each of you agree upon, that encompasses all of your views and to which you can refer. This document is also called a manifesto and lists under different headings all of the points which the proposed political party wishes to advocate and promote as its policy. This manifesto will describe your party's beliefs and its applications to real life.
- Gather up all of your personal, social, and political beliefs. Write them down on a draft for a manifesto (perhaps the size of a pamphlet).
- To help, think of what you feel you have the right to do but can't, what society should be like but isn't, and your government should be but isn't. These types of beliefs, and then some, will be the heart and soul of your political party.
- Get help. You may not be up for writing the manifesto yourself, so here is where the different members of your political party begin to appear. Gather a group of like-minded friends that share and agree to your ideas (once you've pitched it to them), and are willing to create, advertise, organize, join, and recruit for your party. You may assign these original members of your party with jobs to do, such as mentioned before, writing the manifesto. You may try to persuade other people that you do not know yet, as they may take you a little more seriously when they might find out that someone thinks similarly to them, and that charismatic person had persuaded them just enough to come to a few meetings, or even join. Other members may go out and advertise, gather up more friends-to-be-members of their own (a good move).
- For example, Karl Marx didn't write the Communist Manifesto all by himself. He was helped by Friedrich Engels, who helped publish the pamphlet.
Creating the Party's Brand
- Create a logo. Nothing too simple or complex, ideally something that could be stamped or stenciled which is suggestive of the main plank (or policy) of the party or the nature of the class or group of people it represents.
- Create a website with your own domain. This site must be very appealing and organised, listing all your most identifiable views. It must contain a list of founding members with the means for communicating with them including email addresses.
- The website should provide a number of articles dealing with the matters for which the party stands and it should allow for readers' discussion and comments.
- The website should provide the means for people to join the party as members by paying a subscription. It should also allow some of them to vote within the party on local decisions. Depending on the class of membership and the size of the subscription, varying degrees of responsibility should be shared by these members.
Registering the Party
- Register the party. In the UK and in other democratic countries too, political party names must be registered with the Electoral Commission. This is to prevent you calling your party "the Labour Party" or something else which might confuse electors.
- Note that registering a party nationally is often prohibitively expensive for many people. The justification for these charges would seem to be very hard to argue against, and appears a deliberate obstacle to discourage setting up such parties. However, one option to raise funds would be to register your manifesto via a site such as Kickstarter, or initially build support via social networking, such as Facebook. Then, accept donations via PayPal or similar.
- In the USA: Register to your party 1 percent of all registered voters (around 1.5 million Americans). This is easier today because of tools like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Create a name and present an officially manifesto to the Electoral Commission at least 154 days before the primary (presidential) elections. The Electoral Commission will evaluate, and hopefully register you party to the list of the currently 54 registered American political parties.
- Your party must have registered 1% of all registered voters to your party. That is a little over 1.5 million people that you must manage. Then you must prove your establishment to the Electoral Commission, similar to the Electoral College, which are truly the people who decide who your president is from the two federally represented parties (Republicans and Democrats). Therefore, you must register that many people, make up a party name, create a website to foster all information concerning the party, and with this website there must be a paid subscription. Because you will have registered 1.5-2 million people, the price will be small to pay, maybe five dollars a month, or even better, just two dollars a week from each and every member. That money really adds up, and it will do well to actually fund your party for the short and long term vents.
- Note: you must register your party to the Electoral Commission at least 154 days before the primary elections (when the president gets chosen by the Electoral College.)
Leading Your Party
- Establish rules and regulations for your party. This will go further to prevent the division and failure of your party. If you think of yourself as the leader, then don't refer to yourself as that until formally agreed upon in some fashion (you choose a fair way to do so.)
- Don't start a political party just to be the leader of something. You must devote loads of time o the development of your party, and must have the mindset of spreading some set of beliefs.
- Establish temporary authority into your party. If that authority is one of your friends, then they might not take it as seriously, leading to the ultimate disintegration of your party before it is even registered. A stranger may be more careful with that type of power, so look out for people that fit your description of trustworthy. While you have this authority established, you must do the requirements for establishing your political party.
- Be the real leader of your party. Set up some rules to prevent the ultimate dissolution of your party. Prevent the division of your party, and expel the overly opinionated people that try to create dissension or undermine your party. That shows the leadership skills and underlies the power that you posses as founder of your political party.
- Bring refreshments to your meetings (doughnuts and coffee will do). People think better when fed for free.
Tips
- Do not start a party simply to be a leader, start one because you actually have ideas and beliefs you want to share.
- If you are the party organiser and the one in charge, only ever refer to yourself as the organiser, until the leadership is formally agreed.
- Most importantly, remember that there are millions that are waiting to be lead and without a leader... and that opinions vary.
- The best way to gain everyone's attention and respect during an initial meeting (optional for later meetings) is to have refreshments.
- Select only the most dedicated members, avoid all chances of anyone at any time simply quitting for reasons of boredom.
- Act as leader until the party gains sufficient strength that the leader can be elected within the membership of the party.
- Write up a rule in the 'charter' against movements to divide the party. If anyone begins to disagree and/or challenge your authority, this would allow you to expel them by your party's rules.
Warnings
- Third-parties are seriously disenfranchised in the United States, so don't be surprised when you don't win an election.
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