Ghana in Search of Regional Integration Agenda 109 than political parties. According to him, one way interest articulation is done is through the parties' platforms(manifestoes) which oftentimes encapsulate the overwhelming perspectives of society, at least in content(Schmitter 2001: 75). In most established democracies, parties that enter the legislature ostensibly promote the interest of social groups. A typical scenario is that'when bills are drafted and deliberated upon, political parties calculate the gains and losses of a policy proposal on behalf of their social groups, thereby giving voice to the voiceless'(Schmitter 2001:76). In another sense, political parties aggregate citizens and groups' interests and demands. In a liberal democratic environment, political parties tend to coordinate and refine demands that are made on the political system by allowing the system to respond more adequately to the expressed opinions and demands from society and groups. This process is essential because it can help modify conflict, build coalitions and compromises between contending groups in the state, thereby facilitating'universal' decision making in the country(Debrah 2008:30). One core function political parties perform in the state that is also highlighted in the Treaty of Maastricht, is their ability to provide political socialisation to the citizenry. Needless to say, parties socialise segments of the population into the existing political and democratic culture. Throughout the history of modern democracy, parties have assisted in inculcating fundamental values and norms of democracy in the adult population(Gunther and Diamond 2001:8). The provision of political socialisation is important to reinforce the established norms and values, change tribal and ethnic parochial feelings to foster national or regional unity and cohesion. Since political parties act as the conduit of communication, they are able to transmit information upward from the grassroots and downward from the government to the public(Jackson and Jackson 1997:319). The Treaty of Maastricht has recognised that the survival of the European Union, to a large extent, depends on the European parties' role in educating the people on the democratic values and perhaps, the tenets of regional or continental integration(Wikipedia 2009:2). Political parties form governments and formulate policy for public consumption. These policies usually have domestic and international focus. Citizens' participation in the policy formulation process is critical for the success of the policy. For instance, regional integration policies of political parties that have input from their rank-and­file are more likely to receive their concordance support than those that discard their participation in the policy formulation process. For this reason, ideally, elected representatives on party labels endeavour to transform their parties' manifestos – that oftentimes encapsulate the overwhelming desires and aspirations of the membership into manageable programmes(Lipset 2000:49). In the same vein, the parties' organisations can mobilise popular support for a country's membership of a regional organisation such as the ECOWAS.