Much of what is seen of political parties is their work outside the legislature in election campaigns, policy formulation, etc. Political parties, however, work inside the legislature as well. The political party formation in the legislature is usually called the parliamentary group or caucus.
The party caucus consists of the elected representatives of the party (sometimes of a coalition of parties) and tries to solve collective problems of individual legislators, coordinate their interests, and discipline those who violate the party rules.
The major functions or tasks of parliamentary groups in the legislatures can be summarized as follows:
- Choosing floor leaders and presiding officer
- Allocating committee chairmanships and negotiating committee assignments among their members
- Deliberation among the party members
- Identifying different and distinctive interests and wings in the party group
- Formulation of party position regarding bills and wider policy principles in specialized party committees before they are introduced into parliament
- Persuasion of party members and disciplinary action to take a common position on important issues (see below)
The joint vote
The parliamentary party groups often seek to ensure that joint voting in the parliament is possible by disciplining the members to the party line and by adjusting controversial opinions and positions inside the party. The cohesiveness of political parties in the legislature varies considerably between the parliamentary democracies: in some countries, the parties strive to be highly cohesive and have almost achieved complete party discipline. Party discipline is in many cases ensured through a system of announced parliamentary whips link to glossary. In other political systems, relatively few decisions are placed under strict compulsion, depending on the content of the bill to decide on and the required majority of votes.
