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The Intellectual and Ideological Identity of a Party
31.03.2018

In cooperation and Partnership with Konrad Aedanuar Stfftung, Al-Quds Center for Political Studies launched a series of advanced training workshops in Amman entitled: “Support the Political Parties’ Capacities to Build their Political and Economic Platforms.” The first workshop focused on the “Intellectual/Ideological Identity of a Political Party," and the need of a party to make such an identity visible and differentiate between this identity as a must and the tendencies of ideological closure (dogmatism).

This workshop complements the efforts started by the two partner organizations several years ago, including a variety of activities aimed at advancing the Jordanian partisan life and backing up the institutional capacities of parties, developing the leading role of the youth and women members of parties and building up the legislative structure of Jordanian partisan pluralism. Moreover, this workshop lays the grounds for a series of workshops that both partners intend to organize during the year. It especially focuses on helping the partisan leaderships and “Cadres” to acquire skills of political analysis and preparation of policy papers as well as schools of socio-economic analysis.

The workshop was attended by twenty five participants including leaders and “Cadres” of thirteen political parties representing the major currents and trends in the Jordanian partisan system.

During the workshop, the sources and schools from which the major political and intellectual ideologies of the world have stemmed were discussed, including the “national/ethnic/racial”, “social/casteism” and “religious/sectarian/confessionalism,” the school of “individualism/liberalism”, and the ecological school. The intellectual pillars and general principles of political/partisan ideologies were also discussed during the workshop.

The participants did four major exercises in an attempt to sketch the intellectual/ideological map of the Jordanian political parties. The trainees presented the major theoretical and intellectual pillars of their parties and implemented an exercise to identify their parties' positioning on the political and intellectual/ideological map of the Jordanian partisan system.

Moreover, the workshop participants had a deep discussion with regard to the social “incubators/leverages” of parties and the need to further enhance ties between the party and its social constituencies. The participants highlighted the opportunities to build partisan coalitions with their constituencies based on a deeper and more accurate understanding of the partisan classifications in addition to the convergences and divergences among the intellectual and political “families” to which the parties belong.

Participants in the workshop voiced their appreciation of the topics it handled, saying it was the first time they received a qualitative training on these subjects and they asked to be accounted for in the remaining workshops of the advanced training programs which will take place this year.

The “Advanced Training” program implemented under a partnership between Al-Quds Center for Political Studies and Konrad Aedanuar includes special workshops to build up youth capacities and increase participation of the female youth in Jordanian Political Parties.

 

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