Differences And Similarities Between Political Parties And Social Movements

There are some similarities, but various differences between political parties and social movements. It is the sometimes dishonest, intimidating and corrupt nature of political parties as well as the ideological driven nature of social movements which make social movements more adequately placed than political parties to reflect the views of citizens. This is evident in past social movements within South Africa.
Social movements are often informal, or loosely organisational groups of individuals and draw upon the passion of it’s members towards reaching a recognized social goal. This goal usually being one of resisting or attaining a social change. Political parties on the other hand are organized groups of individuals whose purpose is to support a particular set of policies as well as to nominate candidates for public office and to get as many of them elected as possible. Whereas political parties form the government, social movements often either detest policy changes made by the government or demand policy changes by the government.
Political parties are elected by the people of the country based on the ideologies they claim to represent. However, often because of corruption, false promises, inequalities of the past and intimidation, political parties in power fail to reflect the views of
The South African Students Movement was comprised of high school students and was formed with the interest of representing students as well as communicating student grievances during apartheid. These movements as well as the Trade Union Movement and the Mass Democratic Movement were all together responsible for bringing an end to apartheid which was one of the most traumatic eras for all South Africans of all races. It did so by representing various peoples need for a social change against the policies of the government and the political party in