ABSTRACT
The German political scientist who would most strenuously object to treating the party as of "staatlichen Charakter" would not think of excluding the monarch on the same ground. Parties may be found which are best to be described as the special organization for political activity of interest groups, especially of classes, direct. This chapter observes the parties organizing themselves outside of both state and federal governments, and arriving finally at the convention system and the party committees. It is common to classify political parties as reactionary, conservative, and radical or progressive. The chapter identifies these parties with representation in the discussion field, and with organizations that represent them and furnish them leadership, and with various mixed forms of representation, such as special organization of propaganda. It also identifies their intensity dependent upon the intensity of the group pressures, which include of course the amount of the obstruction as well as the amount of the demand.
