By Harshidha Hareesh

Political faction

A political faction is a group of individuals within a larger entity, such as a political party, a trade union or other group, or simply a political climate, united by a particular common political purpose that differs in some respect to the rest of the entity. A faction or political party may include fragmented sub-factions, “parties within a party,” which may be referred to as power blocs, or voting blocs. Members of factions band together as a way of achieving these goals and advancing their agenda and position within an organization.

Factions are not limited to political parties; they can and frequently do form within any group that has some sort of political aim or purpose.

The Latin word factio denoted originally either of the chariot teams that were organized professionally by private companies in ancient Rome, each recognizable by characteristic colour and arousing supporter hysteria similar to that in modern sports fans. These teams were not unlike gladiator schools, but the lethal nature of that entertainment meant few performers lasted long enough to build up similar crowd loyalty to the “team”, while the fighters rarely actually teamed up, but rather fought duels or beasts. In time, political currents could become associated with such a team, although precisely how this happened is unclear. In Byzantine Constantinople, two such chariot factions, blue and green, repeatedly made or broke the claims of candidates to the imperial throne.

Occasionally, the term “faction” is still used more or less as a synonym for political party, but “with opprobrious sense, conveying the imputation of selfish or mischievous ends or turbulent or unscrupulous methods”, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. In his Dictionary, Samuel Johnson (a Tory) dismissively defined Whig as “the name of a faction”. Similarly, in the tenth installment of The Federalist Papers, James Madison defines a faction as “a number of citizens, whether amounting to a minority or majority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” In plain English, this is a group that pursues self-interest at the expense of the greater good.

Aims of factionsEdit

The aims of a political faction are as diverse as the different types of bodies within which they appear. Typically, however, they include: advancing a particular policy or policy agenda, preventing the adoption of alternative policies and supporting given individuals to positions of power within the organisation or in the wider political world. A faction can primarily be based around supporting a given person or group, or a single major aim, with little in the way of common agenda otherwise, or it can have a comprehensive and definitive set of policies. Either way, factional politics typically revolve around personality, with a few individuals playing key roles, acting as a magnet for like-minded people, leading the activities of the faction, and acting as a prominent voice for the shared objectives of the faction. Such individuals can be referred to by a variety of names, such as “power brokers” or “factional chiefs”.

Operation of factions

In political organizations that are democratic in structure, factions rely heavily on securing enough votes to win important ballots. This process is sometimes referred to as “doing the numbers”. Having the numbers will allow the faction to push policies it supports and elect its members to powerful positions within the broader organisation.

If one faction develops within an organization, there will usually be at least one other that develops in opposition to it. Opposing factions will try to match each other’s level of organization and internal discipline, but will also engage in negotiations and trade-offs to ensure that the organization’s activities are not compromised and that every group has a chance to obtain at least some of its goals.

Key to the operation of an organized faction is the existence of a power base. This will typically be some office, division or branch of the broader organisation over which the faction has effective control. Sometimes a power base may be an external or affiliated organization that is involved with the broader organization in some way.

A power base serves several key functions:

• It acts as a recruitment centre for new members, and promotes homogeneity within the membership (crucial for maintaining factional cohesion);
• It can be used as an organizing centre for factional events and activities;
• It functions as a springboard, advancing the career of selected factional members and allowing them to gain skills that will increase their effectiveness and clout.

Factional Politics in an Indian State

In the transition from a nationalist movement to a political party the Indian National Congress, unlike many dominant parties of newly-independent countries, chose to compete with opposition parties for popular support, to manage rather than suppress internal conflict. An important consequence of this decision was the development of a situation in which factions and coalitions of factions became the basic working units of the Congress party, and their unceasing conflicts a constant threat to its endurance.

Based on interviews with more than two hundred political leaders and other politically informed individuals, the book examined the impact of internal factionalism upon the ability of the Congress to deal effectively with the diverse forces in its environment. Concentrating on the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, the book analyses the problems of party organization at the local and district levels, where modern politics and the traditional society met. In the districts, the Congress then had to deal with such forces as Hindu-Muslim tension, conflict and alliance between castes, and the continuing influence of ex-landlords in the countryside. These and other problems, common to much of India were investigated in depth as they occurred in Uttar Pradesh and as they affected the adjustmen of the modern party organization to the traditional order.