In some countries membership of political parties is a big deal. Also, in order to qualify you have to be one of the ‘ruling political parties’, as otherwise there would be multiple country listings. In this article we will go through the Top 7 largest political parties as updated in 2019.
Remember all the old ‘Soviet Russia’ gags? (well if not we have a whole host of them on our blog). Basically, the gag went as follows – ‘in America you look for the party and in Soviet Russia, the party looks for you’.
Disclaimer: the reported membership numbers stated below are usually numbers claimed by the parties themselves and may not be an accurate representation of the actual figures.
7) Workers’ Party of Korea
Coming in at a surprising 7th place on top political parties with 3 million members is the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, which makes up approximately about 15% of the entire population.
Explore the DPRK’s political system your self on one of our North Korean tours!
6) Political parties of Vietnam: The Communist Party
Another communist party on the hot list! In power of their current guise since 1976 and the official reunification of the country they currently have around 4.5 million members and, much like North Korea, lead a Democratic Front.
5) The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front
The EPRD are the head honchos and in government in Ethiopia. Their formative years were spent fighting the Communist Derg. No one really knows what their ideology is — even their impressive 6 million members.
4) United Socialist Party of Venezuela
Venezuela might be going through some issues right now, but the party formed by the enigmatic Hugo Chavez — and now led by the slightly less enigmatic former bus driver Maduro — is still in charge (coup seemingly pending) and has 7.6 million card-carrying members.
We don’t currently do tours in Venezuela but we do go to Colombia and Cuba!
3) Republican Party
Yes, that Republican Party, the one led by Donald Trump. It has 33 million card-carrying members — amusingly 10 million less than the Democratic Party, although less amusing when you factor in the fact that it is led by Mr. Trump.
2) Communist Party of China
The CCP is often touted as the biggest political party in the world, but with a paltry 90 million members, it’s more than 20 million less than the winner. They have managed to stay in power for 70 years though, so we give them credit for that.
Explore China and its political system on our Chairman Mao Revolutionary Tour & Nanjiecun People’s Commune tour!
1) Bharatiya Janata Party
India’s BJP, who just obtained another thumping election victory, are top of the pile with a whopping 110 million card-carrying members, which could go up at any point. Their recent victory made them the first party in decades to command a majority; to contrast, the former big guns of the Congress Party can only muster 20-40 million members.
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