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, party discipline":
... Collective leadership State Council Presidential Council Communist Party Communist Party Congress Central Committee History General Secretary Politburo Secretariat Orgburo Legislature Congress of Soviets Central ... view, stating "our rules represent 'organisational nonconfidence' of the party toward its parts, that is, supervision over all local, district, national and other organisations.. ... 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 ...
... The year 1978 saw the first open revolt in party discipline ... time when 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 government and parliamentary party ...
... 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 ...
... according to an official line set down by their political party ... the elected 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 ... 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:
“Either you think—or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“I did not enter the Labour Party forty-seven years ago to have our manifesto written by Dr. Mori, Dr. Gallup and Mr. Harris.”
—Tony Benn (b. 1925)