Dear student
The political parties perform the following functions:
Parties contest elections. In most democracies, elections are fought mainly among the candidates put up by political parties. Parties select their candidates in different ways. In some countries, such as the USA, members and supporters of a party choose its candidates. Parties put forward different policies and programs and the voters choose from them. In a democracy, a large number of similar opinions have to be grouped together to provide a direction in which policies can be formulated by the governments. This is what the parties do. The political parties also mobilize masses through their various functions like parties that lose an election they play the role of opposition to the party in power, shape public opinion, etc.
