Ghana in Search of Regional Integration Agenda 108 within the Union. They contribute to forming a European awareness and expressing the political will of the citizens of the Union'(Wikipedia 2009:1). The overarching question then is; what should be the role of political parties in regional integration? What specific role have political parties in Ghana played toward the formation and promotion of the integration of the West African sub­region? What are the dynamics and challenges facing the parties' ability to play their integration role? What should the Ghanaian political parties do to overcome the challenges in order to contribute to regional integration? These are complex questions and the issues involved require careful investigation, a task this study endeavours to accomplish. The Traditional Role of Political Parties As many associations and groups operating in the state bear identical characteristics, it is most appropriate to provide a definition of a political party to avoid controversies surrounding what actually constitutes a political party, party This study adopts a working definition based on the assumption that a political party is a group of like­minded people – a homogeneous group with shared values, attitudes and interest – a view captured in Edmund Burke's classic definition of a political party. Burke postulated a political party as‘a body of men and women united for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed'(quoted in Ware 1996:5). But this definition does not establish a distinction between a political party and other legitimate associations doing'business in a state”. Hence, Giovanni Sartori defined a political party as'any political group that presents at elections, and is capable of placing through election, candidates for public offices'(Sartori 1976:4). Thus a political party refers to any legitimate organisation with a well defined manifesto – which expresses its ideological position and programmes, and seeks to capture political power through an election to control the affairs of a state. Once, a description of a political party is provided, the next task is to identify the specific role that has been assigned to political parties in the political system – that may even transcend domestic boundaries. In contrast to the Madisonian skeptics who denounced political parties on the pretext that they represent division and that their activities'can pervert the popular will of the majority', liberal theorists have viewed political parties in a more positive light(Norris 2004:1). Contemporary advocates of political parties recognize their invaluable role in the state and society. Among the countless groups in the state, political parties articulate interests of competing social groups and forces by advancing their specific claims and interests to the government. Although other civil society organisations tend to undertake this activity, P. C. Schmitter thinks that no other group does this better