Despite their manifest flaws, political parties improve democracy and it is implausible that it could be successful without them

Political parties are the gatekeeper to almost all democratic policies and offices. But they are often dismissed for only being interested in votes and not voters’ actual opinions. Citizens have become less partisan in the last decades. Perhaps it is time to get rid of them. Would we be better off without them? Not according to Ann-Kristin Kölln, who argues that parties are not strictly necessary but it is implausible that representative democracy could be successful without them.