Concept:
- Visibility can be tested by asking where an ordinary citizen actually meets the political system during a normal year.
- At almost every such meeting point, what the citizen meets is a political party.
Step 1: The meeting point at election time.
During an election the voter sees party symbols on the ballot, party manifestos, party rallies and party workers at the door. The choice offered is a choice between parties and their programmes rather than between unconnected individuals.
Step 2: The meeting point in the news.
Between elections, the government and the opposition dominate every report. One party runs the state and takes the decisions, another questions those decisions and mobilises opinion against them. Both sides carry party labels.
Step 3: The meeting point in the law.
Every law that reaches a citizen was passed in a legislature where members voted along party lines. The party therefore decides the shape of the rules people live under, even though the citizen never sees that process directly.
Step 4: The meeting point in the locality.
When a water connection fails, a pension is delayed or a scheme has to be applied for, most people approach the local party worker rather than a government office. Parties give people access to government machinery and welfare schemes.
This daily usefulness is why party workers are known in every neighbourhood.
Step 5: The proof in how people complain.
People blame parties for whatever goes wrong with democracy, and dissatisfaction with democratic working is usually expressed as dissatisfaction with parties. Nobody blames an institution they cannot see.
Final Answer: Wherever a citizen touches the political system, at the ballot, in the news, in the law and in the locality, a political party is standing there. That is why parties are the most visible institution of a democracy, and why democracy itself is judged by how they behave.