A party is generally identified as a group of officials associated with a fairly large group of citizens in an organization. This organization was designed to help officials gain and maintain power in the government as well as to join people in a formal and organized structure. Before the political party, before democracy even, officials could gain power a few different ways. They could buy the office, bribe someone, get appointed, or just gain power because it is their birthright. Then, people usually dealt with a few individuals or with one, single person - such as a king - but, under democracy, the official in question must gain the vote of a thousand people or more.
Nothing in the definition states that political parties are solely restricted to democracies and, in fact, political parties are used in many different countries that are not electoral democracies. Perhaps the reason for their widespread use is because of what political parties provide for a state. Holding elections involves huge masses of common citizens in playing out their support for a state, which, in turn, strengthens said state. Political parties are intended to mobilize citizens for special purposes or crises, but may also be used to ally the general public against a regime. Additionally, parties have become an important part of the population's identity and the individual's identity. Party identification as it is commonly called, has become a critical personal concern and often gives people a sense of political community throughout their lives. Furthermore, political parties are a superb chamber for power by which political leaders can control the actions of other political leaders and/or the state's citizens. By placing party members in leadership positions in education and media, leaders of a state can ensure control over what their citizens think and say. However, in the United States, there is no formal definition separating those who belong and those who don't, so individuals are free to define themselves as they please.
To have a political party, officials need funding to support them and their cause, which they receive through many different ways. They can get funding through public finance, individual memberships, bribes or deals, interest-group donations, profits from business enterprise, and even subsidies from foreign countries. Once the funds are taken care of, states must identify with one of four party systems, or the set of all parties. A one-party system is one in which a single political party is allowed activity and to function effectively. Similarly, the dominant party has a single party which holds power all the time, but if does allow other parties to function openly and efficiently. Additionally, there is the two-party system in which no one party holds all the power all the time, but only two parties can generally expect to gain this power. Finally, there exists the multiparty system, which is similar to the two-party system except that it consists of more than two major parties. Though most democratic societies function in the multiparty system, which the US claims to be, the two-party system does have an advantage. In a multiparty system, government rule will not work properly unless at least two of the parties agree to work together in a coalition, which, considering the population, may be rather difficult to accomplish. For all intents and purposes, the main function of a party is to supply a means by which one party may exercise power over another.
