ABSTRACT
ONE OF THE MAJOR DIFFERENCES between the ordinary political party in the West and those in new countries is that rarely do the former challenge the legitimacy of the system as a whole. Quite the contrary, they act so as to minimize the disaffiliation of the members of the system. In the effort to press important issues and accumulate votes, the sore points of conflict tend to be remedied by political parties whose leadership is engaged in a never-ending scrutiny of public attitudes to find those issues to which catering is vital. Thus conflict is a source of strength in democracy. Free and open conflict identifies those sources of grievance which most need to be rendered sanguine.
