Humanity has not elaborated developed any other mechanism for representing political interests other than parties. This was the statement made to BelTA by Deputy Director of the Belarusian Institute of Strategic Research, Candidate of Political Sciences Tatiana Shendik.
"Humanity has not elaborated any other mechanism for representing political interests other than parties. The projection is that digital democracy tools are unlikely to be able to assume the important function of parties in formulating strategic policy directions", Tatiana Shendik said.
At the same time, parties have been adopted only as a necessary evil. "After all, the party is power, and power, as a rule, attracts either idealistic romantics or political adventurers. Therefore, the effect of embedding this institution in the political system may be disproportionate to the risks that it bears for the entire system", the BISR Deputy Director added.
"This is a very important thesis, especially since the Belarusian society actually has no experience of existing under a multi-party political system. Therefore, the restructuring of the political body should be accompanied by a multi-level system of regulation of the conditions for the creation and operation of parties. In particular, the law on political parties should be both be strict and promote the formation of responsible political forces with broad public support", Tatiana Shendik said. "Otherwise, we will multiply small cliques, whose activities are likely to be based on the tactics of wearing down the power".
The Candidate of Political Sciences noted that there are prerequisites for the formation of a public demand from below for access to political tools to influence decision-making. "Globalization, urbanization and large-scale digitalization make these processes irreversible. This makes us think about the tools for converting public energy into a constructive channel. The main thing is to come to an understanding that a party's task is not so much a struggle for power but rather the development of directions for the country's development", Tatiana Shendik concluded.