Political systems are very complex to understand without knowing the role of most agencies, branches and parties. Government functions are not as independent as one might think; because they are made up of multiple branches and most branches are made up of politicians from multiple parties. Political parties are therefore the essence of politics, they define the political system of a country; single-party, two-party or multi-party system. The relationship between parties and governments is an important phenomenon in political science, because parties are fundamentally the link between the people and their government. (Panebianco p7) However, parties can also be a source of chaos in some cases, especially when they disagree on certain issues; they could cause a gridlock in the system, as we have seen recently with US fiscal policy. Or they can turn disagreement into violence, as was the case with the Lebanese civil war. Thus, one cannot underestimate the important role of political parties, most if not all executives and legislatures come from a political party, there may be independent politicians in power but this is generally rare. (Jankowski 22) Political parties also play a large role in spreading their ideologies to the citizens of their nations; In the United States, for example, there are two similar but different parties, each broadcasting their ideologies to their supporters. Therefore, the role of political parties is complex and it will be examined by understanding their role, how they gather support, what is their role in governments, concluding with short case studies on Lebanon, Syria and the United Kingdom. The methodology used in writing this article is based on a literary review of articles linked to the middle of the article ......mid=125>.Lawson, Kay and Thomas Poguntke. How political parties respond: interest aggregation revisited. Routledge, 2004. Hermeren, Henrik. “Government Formation in Multiparty Systems.” Scandinavian Political Studies 11.A11 (1976): 131-146. Jankowski, Richard. “Aggregation of preferences in political parties and interest groups: a synthesis of corporatist and global organization theory.” American Journal of Political Science 32.1 (1988): 105 - 125. Midwest Political Science Association. Internet. January 3, 2014. Pappalardo, A.. “Electoral systems, party systems: Lijphart and beyond”. Party Politics 13.6 (2007): 721-740. Panebianco, Angelo. Political parties: organization and power. CUP Archives, 1988. Lijphart, Arend. “Consociative democracy.” World Politics 21.2 (1969): 207-225. Ware, Alan. Political parties and party systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.