Political Parties: The Formations of Political Parties

Political Parties are designed to make decisions based off the needs of their country, but occasionally these organizations become corrupt and resort to force and violence to achieve the outcome that they desire.  Terrorist groups and political parties share their dedication and desire to achieve a political goal, but they have different tactics to achieve those goals. A political party is responsible for the protection of its citizens and terrorist activity has become a major threat to national security.  Terrorist organizations feed off of fear and power by causing disastrous attacks to gain power against opposing actors.  Terrorism is an effective use of propaganda and it is a threat to the instability of any states government.  Political parties with unlimited power can easily join terrorist organizations to achieve a political purpose. There are many factors that assist in increasing the rise of terrorist activity, but the combination of political ideology and the structure of a party are the main contributors to relationships between terrorist organizations and political parties. 

In order to understand political parties today it is important to study a states ideology and the road they took to get to their current organizations of political institutions.  The United States is a country that promotes efficiency and productivity and many countries around the world do not want to adapt to the fast pace lifestyle.  Modernization forces a transition that some countries are not prepared economically which causes ethnic division.  For example, the Middle East contains mostly authoritarian countries and the attempts to modernize the region have failed.  The Arab Spring was meant to be the first step towards democracy in the Middle East, but it changed little.  The Middle East and North Africa have the highest percentage of terrorist activity and this is largely due to the regions weak rule of law.  Countries within the MENA region are categorized as periphery countries and if they cannot develop, terrorism will spread further.  I have found that terrorism has fallen in most regions of the world, but it is spreading especially in sub-saharan Africa.  ISIS, Boko Haram, al Qaida, and al-Shabaab are “gaining ground in emerging democracies, states in transition, and failing states” (Gaibulloev, 2017).  Countries in this region have been subjected to authoritarian rule and their governments do not have human rights and the safety of their citizens as a priority.  

Regime type has proven to be a major indicator of whether terrorism will be prevalent or not in a country and we can see that democratic regimes are better balanced which makes it very difficult for terrorist ideals to penetrate political parties. Authoritarian governments on the other hand have complete control over their citizens by limiting their human rights and this allows terrorist groups to easily takeover. The Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon hold 23 seats in the Lebanese parliament and they have access to political information.  Hezbollah has been endorsed by Shi'a organizations and they now have veto power because of the lack of balance within the Lebanese political system.  The Middle East also is enveloped in religious conflict which makes single-party authoritarian parties dangerous.  Shi'a religious groups have connections with Hezbollah and can use their tactics to achieve religious gain.  Relationships between political parties and terrorist groups are directly effected of by the institutional instability.  

Domestic instability is one of the main reasons for the increase of international terrorist attacks since 9/11 and I have found that civil wars and internal conflict are a direct cause of international terrorism.  Connections between terrorist organizations and political parties are more common in the world today and they continue to cause issues for underdeveloped countries. Political parties have become more vulnerable and desperate for power in countries with less resources and military strength which leads them to violent actions.  In some cases the desire for leadership change is so strong that political parties will form independent terrorist groups to accomplish their political needs.  Unstable governments can cause economic failure and increase poverty rates which makes it easy for authoritative people to establish dominance in the weak institution, making conflict the source of their power.