ABSTRACT
Perspectives and operations are patterned in political practices. Fundamental practices in such conduct include patterns of relationship between leaders and led, and the distribution of responsibility in relations of representative and constituent. An important derivative of the idea of rational power practices is the concept of preventive politics. Power practices have failed to maximize values when they have been directed solely toward the resolution, rather than prevention, of conflict situations. Representation stabilizes power structure by providing a mean between the extremes of concentration and dispersion of power. The impracticability of the exercise of power distributed throughout a large domain is a familiar consideration. Parties secure and exercise power through the formal coordination of votes. A party attempts to acquire power by occupying positions of authority. Parties were of maximal importance in the nineteenth century, with the growth of mass participation in at least the formal power process.
