Political parties are topics well known to women and men of the XXI century that live in both democratic and authoritarian regimes. Even though political parties originally emerged in order to represent people’s claims and to organize popular participation, today they seem to be relegated to the «Palace» or places where political power can be found. They have weak social roots, but exert a wide control of the State. This article retraces the parabola of political parties, highlighting their nature as complex organizations. Parties have to face four «organizational problems» related to: internal participation, organizational structure, mobility of resources and relations with their environment (strategic problem). Generally, parties adopt strategies to maximize their votes, presence in office and policy seeking, or their mix. These strategies usually affect the ways to face and eventually solve other organizational problems. The same historical party types will be examined through the analysis of these external and internal organizational problems. / Apreciados o no, lo cierto es que los partidos se han vuelto un asunto familiar para las mujeres y los hombres del siglo XXI, así hayan vivido en regímenes democráticos o autoritarios. Los partidos políticos nacieron para representar las demandas procedentes de abajo y para orga- nizar la participación popular. Sin embargo, hoy en día parecen estar relegados en el «Palacio»; es decir, en los sitios de poder político. A pesar de tener un débil arraigo social, tienen un gran alcance en términos de control del Estado. Este artículo propone una relectura de la parábola de los partidos políticos resaltando su carácter de organizaciones complejas. Estos partidos, en realidad, tienen que afrontar cuatro «problemas organizativos» relacionados con la participación interna, la articulación organizativa, la movilización de los recursos fundamentales y las relacio- nes con el entorno (problema estratégico). En general, las estrategias que los partidos utilizan en relación con su entorno (task environment) pueden ser vote, office y policy seeking o su mezcla, y en general influyen en las maneras en las que se afrontan y, eventualmente, resuelven los otros problemas organizativos. Los mismos tipos históricos de partido se explican a través del análisis de estos problemas organizativos internos y externos.

The diploma thesis deals with the analysis of British party system and its special features, with the focus on the main political parties in Great Britain, their history, their development and the current position within the system. The thesis employs methods of analysis of specialized sources in the English language mainly. The aim of the first part is to provide theoretical knowledge to establish background for better understanding the rest of the thesis. The following part of the thesis deals with the main political parties in Great Britain, their development, programs and their current position in the system. The most important part of the thesis is the last one, which focuses on Liberal Democratic Party, its beginnings, development and puts emphasis on the two last elections in 2010 and 2015. There is an attempt to provide an opinion on what were the reasons of the election results depending on election program, electorate and other specifications.