ABSTRACT
Parties have to concern themselves with interests and needs beyond those of their immediate supporters, because they need to attract other votes in elections. They form governments, often coalitions with other parties, which will make policy for the country as a whole. In many cases parties were the creators and sponsors of a particular type of union in European countries. Political parties are simply one channel, though often the most spectacular, through which social developments take place. The creation of Karl Marx in the mid-nineteenth century, Marxism is probably still the best known political ideology in the West. Socialism also took over from Marxism the ideas of equality and a welfare state. It differed from communism, however, in accepting the need for democratic pluralism and thus the possibility of its own electoral defeat. This also meant in practice that it operated a mixed economy rather than advocating total state planning.
