FORMATION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE ECUADORIAN PARLIAMENT SINCE THE RETURN TO DEMOCRACY

ABSTRACT

The unit of analysis of the article is linked to the role of political parties in the parliament of the Republic of Ecuador, since the return to democracy in 1979. In the democratic state of the country, the legislative power has a representative character, the base that constitutes Parliament is made up of political parties and movements. The development of the work is raised from a theoretical perspective to the analysis of political parties in the formation and development of the Ecuadorian parliament since the return to democracy, the principle of political parties in parliament and the functions of political parties in Ecuadorian Parliament.

АННОТАЦИЯ

Предмет анализа статьи связан с ролью политических партий в парламенте Республики Эквадор после возвращения к демократии в 1979 году. В демократическом государстве страны законодательная власть носит представительный характер, основу, составляющую парламент, составляют политические партии и движения. Развитие работы с теоретической точки зрения направлено на анализ роли политических партий в формировании и развитии парламента Эквадора после возвращения к демократии, принципа работы политических партий в парламенте и функций политических партий в парламенте Эквадора.

Keywords: Political parties, Parliament, National Assembly, Multipartism, Ecuador, Latin America.

Ключевые слова: Политические партии, Парламент, Национальная ассамблея, Многопартийность, Эквадор, Латинская Америка.

1. Political parties in the formation of the Ecuadorian Parliament

In the democratic state of Ecuador, the legislative power has a character of representation, the base that constitutes the Parliament is formed by the political parties and movements, which are civic organizations of socio-political doctrine, their line is democratic and they have the capacity to act in the development of the political activity of the legislative power;  Stokes [18], deepens this position of political parties, saying that they are the link between the interests of citizens and the actions of the government, have the ability to induce citizens to politics, have the reputation of giving order to the legislative processes, and give openness to citizens to accountability.

It should be noted that, although their activity is regulated by the electoral system, they are not state institutions and their institutional development is independent. Morlock says: "Parliament is a target for political parties. In it, parties try to materialize their political objectives, in particular through laws [...] MPs project the parties' aspirations" [10, p. 377].

Political parties and movements in Parliament are forced to work together, despite having their own legislative agendas and objectives. The basis of the interaction of these political organizations gives stability to the Parliament in the performance of its public functions. Therefore, we must ask the following question: What is the situation of political party building in the formation and development of parliament in Ecuador today?

The establishment of the democratic system in Ecuador took place in the 19th century and brought with it collegiate bodies (parliament) and electoral bodies. Before that, the country did not have an established political culture on parties, this does not mean that prior to the birth of political parties there were no other forms of social organization, to participate in political activity (National Electoral Council, 2013), in this sense Duverger (1957), states that until 1850, no country in the world (except the United States), knew the political party in the modern sense of the word; that is, until the present year (2023), 173 years of evolution of political parties and continuous changes in party systems have passed.

The introduction of the parties was by the conservative party in the second half of the XIX century, and on the other hand, the liberal party did the same at the end of the same century. The next important stage of modern political parties in Ecuador dates back to the second half of the twentieth century, as a consequence of the restoration of a democratic regime. Since then, the country has begun to build political parties and we have witnessed the emergence and disappearance of countless political organizations [11].

By the 1970s, the country was ruled by a dictatorial military regime. In the change from an authoritarian to a democratic model, a political restructuring plan was initiated. In 1976, Ecuador's political elites entrusted the success of the democratic transition to political parties, and the fundamental task of building a strong and modern party system was assigned to the development of democracy [7].

Since the approval of the new Constitution of 1979, new progressive proposals of the political parties were included. The researcher Pachano [14] points out that, in the institutional design of the return of the democratic regime, the emphasis was centered on political parties, which had different tasks, firstly, to encompass political representation, secondly, they were required to have a national presence and, finally, they were seen as an antidote to populism (a phenomenon that until then had dominated for more than 40 years), considered negative and destabilizing for democracy.

1.2 Role of political parties in the development of parliament in the return to democracy

The 1979 Constitution allowed the development of a multiparty system with the objective of rationalizing and channeling social interests through political programs. Therefore, we can affirm that the organization of political parties was conceived as an instrument of citizen participation and political representation. Therefore, the real structural transformation of Parliament is related to the institutionalization of political parties. But we must ask ourselves how productive is multipartyism in the Ecuadorian parliament?

The objective of creating and consolidating "strongly institutionalized forms, such as political parties" [14, p. 23-24], is still in question whether they are conducive to the development of parliament. In the following, we will enumerate the assumptions of multipartism that impede the construction of a solid parliament:

a) The "extreme multipartism" [3, p. 220], which generates political fragmentation in Parliament due to the multiplicity of interests that each political party has on its agenda;

b) It is related to the internal problems of the parties and the inability of their leadership to resolve differences by consensus, lacking the so-called party discipline, conflicts or internal power struggles that are often resolved by dividing and creating new parties [3]. Laws are specifically designed to prevent party fragmentation; the legal framework governing party activities has not been able to limit centrifugal tendencies.

c) Political parties isolate themselves from the laws that have been drafted for the effective functioning of Parliament;

d) The parties move away from their ideologies, political doctrines and programs proposed for their legislative management [14];

e) They undermine representative relations between Parliament and citizens and call into question the authority and credibility of the legislative branch;

f) The multiparty system has enough difficulties to be spokespersons of multiple heterogeneous groups, it is not easily compatible with traditional representative institutions, such as the parliament [5]; even because of the variety of representation groups, the sum of individual wills can be minuscule, to have strength or presence in the legislature, or also called by Morlok "democratic majority rule" [10, p. 379].

g) the last factor is the result of previous causes: the polarized pluralism of the parties in the Ecuadorian Parliament causes instability in the legislative branch, due to the blockage in decision-making in the different spheres of public power.

Multipartyism can generate a "power struggle" within the parliament and even against the executive branch. The inter-parliamentary forces expressed can express the degree of tension, rupture and confrontations within the legislative branch. The effects of parliamentary forces are translated into ruptures of pacts between parties, restructuring of internal powers and occasional modification of political positions in the opposition [16].

We agree with Mainwaring [9], when he mentions that multi-party systems can generate problems of democracy and deadlock between the executive and the legislature; in two-party systems, ideological polarization is less likely with only two parties. Along the same lines, Chasquetti [2], explains that, a) parliamentary democracy is stable when combined with multiparty systems and b) presidential democracy is not stable when combined with multiparty systems.

At this point we can make the assumption of the need to reformulate the institutional design of the party system in Ecuador, moving from a multiparty system to a more moderate or two-party system (although the latter may be far from being taken into account in Ecuadorian politics). 

An institutional redesign may be a solution to the internal conflict of the parties in parliament (by reducing pluralist polarization) and reduce to some extent the power struggle between the legislative and executive branches.

2. The principle of political parties in parliament

Parliament implies democracy. A democracy that brings together the different points of view of society, its needs, interests, proposals and ideas on everyday issues. Conflict resolution requires the participation of citizens in open debates between different social actors in the process of forming public opinion; This democratic consensus establishes that each citizen has the right to represent his ideology in the competition of ideologies [8]. This democracy is expressed in constitutional laws that promote the participation of citizens in decision making.

The exchange of all these ideas and beliefs drives the creation of pressure groups, these social organizations are an instrument with the principles of monopolizing popular expression in the conciliation of interests and obtaining social benefits; only with a legal basis will be rejthey take the form of a political party or movement. Political parties are created as specialized organs to take advantage of the institutional structures of democratic conditioning, especially elections and parliaments. A complex society can only reach higher levels of development through Specialization. This also applies to organizations [10].

The elementary principle of political parties in the legislature is the representation of the general will of society. Modern democracy is based on political parties and they form the basis of the central institution of democracy: The Parliament.

The union of social groups with common points of view is the source of the plurality of parties and ideologies represented in Parliament, especially in a multiparty system, as is the case in Ecuador. The plurality of opinions diversifies the parliamentary debate, making it possible to reach common agreements based on the "majority principle". The political scientist Sartori [17], defines this principle as an absolutely popular decision, from the point of view of the majority principle, it is a body that represents the people and reflects the majority that elects it, at the end of this process there is a division in groups afterwards, in the decisions there is a majority that accepts everything and a minority that loses everything.

The decision making in the Plebiscite of the Parliament chamber is an institutional design that activates the participation of political parties to achieve agreements, consensus and negotiations, there is competition of ideas, the process of opinion formation in society must go through a pluralistic process, an open process of debate between disparate interest groups [8]. We understand that the majority that makes the decision in Parliament represents the majority of citizens, and what happens in this antagonism with the representation of minorities in Parliament? de Maldonado [4], makes an analysis of this principle in the state and we adapt it to the situation of parties and Parliament.

First: Discussion in the Plenary of the problems facing modern society leads to the presentation of proposals, debate and decision-making through voting. The result of each vote is that the strongest alliance of political parties prevails and that the proposal promoted by the minority, "those political forces that, thanks to the support of the voters, develop their activity in the parliamentary sphere with numerical superiority" [15], will be reject. Party minorities are important in parliamentary democracy because they show opposition to the government and to alternative proposals and programs.

Second: the parties representing the people in Parliament invoke the formula of a democratic system of decision-making, an aspect of the greatest dignity in this process is the integral result of the participation of the majority and minority of political parties, as they are interconnected and work to reach a consensus in the discussion and subsequent approval. Therefore, it does not appear as a coercive unilateral imposition, but on the contrary, when discussed and considered beforehand, it has a character of formality and political legitimacy.

Third: the parliamentary body, within the framework of its internal rules, should encourage the participation of all political parties, even if the activities of minorities are a reflection of democracy. The democratic guarantees offered by modern states in their constitutions must enshrine the right of political minorities, which will form the two elementary principles of parliament, the principle of representation and the principle of decision-making [12]. 

Fourthly: for the sake of coexistence in which the parliament must exist, political parties, as representatives of multiple social actors and bearers of various proposals of political and ideological nature, must coexist in an environment of tolerance, freedom and respect, of the stability of the parliament. Thus, the majority and minority parties contribute to the development of democracy and fulfill the responsibilities of the legislature to the nation-state.

3. The functions of the political parties in the Ecuadorian Parliament

When mentioning the functions of parties, it is tacitly implicit to analyze and investigate the functions they perform or are expected to perform [1]. The main condition of political parties is the materialization of the interests and convictions of the society that elected them, through the legislature.

To point out the functions of parties in Parliament, at the beginning we will follow the postulates of Morlok [10]. In channeling the aspirations of voters, parties aim to materialize the interests and convictions in particular the following:

a) The parties bring together social interests, the parties become a collection of interests, unify those similar to each other, and transform them into political goals; b) Those of democratic politics, are directed by the parties, guarantee the political system, monitor the opposition parties and contribute to the construction of public opinion; c) The parties try to materialize their aims particularly by occupying decision-making positions with their own personnel, they try to take the positions of greatest influence and political scope in parliament, and even outside it, taking their aims to other institutions of the state. On this last point, when referring to Ecuador, according to the Organic Law of the Legislative Function (Article 6), it is to take charge or position of the Presidebncy of the National Assembly; the Legislative Administration Council; the Specialized Commissions; the General Secretariat of the National Assembly; the Legislative Technical Unit; and, the others established by the Plenary.

We consider that the functions proposed by Morlok can be extended, we propose the following:

d) governance function, from a perspective that the capacity to govern are critical elements of good governance [21]. In partisan activity in parliament legislative decisions made by political parties set, modify or transform the rules or norms of society with the approval of the legal regime. Parliamentary processes are assigned to political parties and their respective members, so the actions of decision-making, enactment of laws, presentation, voting, debate, control over other branches of the state, supervision are processes that make up governance;

e) development function, responds to the capacity to carry out parliamentary initiatives proposed by the political parties in order to introduce, modify or amend a norm or law and are subject to approval or rejection in the chamber of Parliament; and,

f) the role of the legislative blocs, is the political design of the Democratic organization in the legislature, the political parties join the others to act in a concerted manner in the promotion of their common political projects and have more margin in the formulation of policies.  This form of teamwork allows for a higher level of efficiency and accountability [19].

With reference to point (f), in Ecuador it is a new figure in the political aspect, it appeared for the first time in the 1998 Constitution under the name of blocks and was ratified in the last Constitution of 2008 under the name of legislative benches.

Conclusions

• The role of political parties in Ecuador dates back to the second half of the nineteenth century, although its heyday with modern characteristics would occur a century later (mid-twentieth century). Since 1979, in the so-called "return of democracy", the Ecuadorian state experienced an institutional design, in this sense, political parties were challenged to overcome the phenomenon of populism, to collect and house in their structures the different thoughts and aspirations of citizens.
• In the development of the document, the assumption is made of the need to reformulate the institutional design of the party system in Ecuador, moving from multipartyism to a more moderate or bipartisan partisanship, in order to reduce the polarization of ideologies, conflicts and inter-parliamentary tensions. Furthermore, it could be a possible solution to the power struggle between the legislative and executive branches.
• The basic principle of political parties in the legislature is the representation of the general will of society. The parties in parliament can present proposals, debate them and make decisions through voting, in which the will of the majority prevails. In the heart of parliament there must be an interconnection between majorities and minorities in order to reach consensus. The coexistence of political parties must take place in an environment of tolerance, freedom and respect, this will provide stability in Parliament.
• The functions of political parties in parliament are to bring together social interests, to be guarantors of democracy and citizen participation, to occupy the main seats in parliament, to develop, modify or amend bills and to work together in legislative blocs or benches to work in concert in the granting of political projects.

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