1. Lack of internal democracy: Power in most parties is concentrated in the hands of one or a few leaders at the top; parties do not keep membership registers, do not hold organisational meetings and do not conduct internal elections regularly. Ordinary members have no information about what happens inside the party, no means to influence decisions, and those who disagree with the leadership find it difficult to continue in the party. 2. Dynastic succession: Since parties lack transparency, the leaders at the top are in a position to favour people close to them or even their family members; in many parties the top positions are always controlled by members of one family, which is unfair to other members and bad for democracy, because people with no experience or popular support come to occupy positions of power. 3. Money and muscle power: The growing role of money and muscle power in parties, especially during elections, is a serious challenge; parties tend to nominate those candidates who have or can raise a lot of money. Rich people and companies who give funds to parties tend to have an influence on the policies and decisions of the party, and in some cases parties support criminals who can win elections. 4. No meaningful choice to voters: Very often parties do not offer a meaningful choice to the voters, because the ideological differences among parties have come down in most countries; in India too the differences among all the major parties on economic policies have reduced. Those who want a really different set of policies have no option available to them, and even leaders keep changing parties, so the choice becomes limited.