Party discipline is the ability of a parliamentary group of a political party to get its members to support the policies of their party leadership. In liberal democracies, it usually refers to the control that party leaders have over its legislature. Party discipline is important for all systems of government that allow parties to hold political power because it determines the degree to which the governmental infrastructure will be affected by legitimate political processes.
The term has a somewhat different meaning in Marxist-Leninist political systems such as the People's Republic of China. In this case it refers to administrative sanctions such as fines or expulsion that the Communist Party can impose on its members for actions such as corruption or disagreeing with the party.
Breaking party discipline in actual parliamentary votes is called crossing the floor.
Other articles related to "party discipline, party":
... The year 1978 saw the first open revolt in party discipline ... a TD, let alone a cabinet minister, was allowed flout the party whip in Fianna Fáil and damaged Lynch's authority when he failed to expel the minister from the ...
... Weak party discipline is usually more frequent in parties of notables than in populist parties ... The French Radical-Socialist Party had no party discipline, neither did any of the right-wing parties during the Third Republic (1871-1940) ... A weak party discipline is also found congressional systems such as the United States Congress ...
... Collective leadership State Council Presidential Council Communist Party Communist Party Congress Central Committee History General Secretary ... criticised this view, stating "our rules represent 'organisational nonconfidence' of the party toward its parts, that is, supervision over all local, district, national and other ... the organisation of the party takes place of the party itself the Central Committee takes the place of the organisation and finally the dictator takes the place of the ...
... own personal conscience rather than according to an official line set down by their political party ... members of a legislature who belong to a political party are usually required by that party to vote in accordance with the party line on significant legislation, on pain of censure or expulsion from the party ... Sometimes a particular party member known as the whip is responsible for maintaining this party discipline ...
Famous quotes containing the words discipline and/or party:
“Counsel men to discipline their children, but not to divorce their wives.”
—Chinese proverb.
“... the idea of a classless society is ... a disastrous mirage which cannot be maintained without tyranny of the few over the many. It is even more pernicious culturally than politically, not because the monolithic state forces the party line upon its intellectuals and artists, but because it has no social patterns to reflect.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)