Parties are definitionally partial and oppositional, not unifying institutions

Evidence

The creative role of parties means that in one respect the traditional complaint about parties is correct: parties do challenge the imagined unity or holism of the political order. On one hand, political parties seek to bring people together in majority coalitions to govern. On the other, they create and exacerbate divisions. Indeed, partiality and opposition are their raison d’être. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 195

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Parties do not mirror existing conflicts but actively create and organize them — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 193; US parties were never mass parties but functioned as such via civil associations.; Continental party theory defined parties as partial, self-limiting, and incapable of standing alone (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Continental party theory defined parties as partial, self-limiting, and incapable of standing alone #corroborates (0.95)