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I know 党 on its own can be a suffix, but it can also be used on its own.

What is the difference between using 政党 and 党? Is one more formal than the
other?

For example (using Goo examples): 党の方針 vs 政党の方針

党中に党を立てる vs 政党中に政党を立てる
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word-choice nuances
Nuances of using 政党 vs 党
To some extent, yes, 政党 is more formal and 党 _could_ be just a group. So
政党中に政党を立てる sounds less natural or just impossible while 党中に党を立てる could be used
when there are sects in a party.

That said, 党 is mostly used when it refers to a specific party - in this
sense, it more often traslates to _the party_. For example, 党の方針に従う is more
natural than 政党の方針に従う because the party whose policy the subject follows must
be clear from the context.

In contrast, 政党 refers to _a generic party_.

  * それは党の方針として不適切だ
  * それは政党の方針として不適切だ

The former sounds _inappropriate as a policy of the party (e.g., because it
does not match what the party has advocated)_ ; The latter is more simply _it
is inappropriate as a policy of any party (e.g., because it is morally
unacceptable)._

* * *

This is similar for (one aspect of) the differences between 会社 and 社: 社の者
means _a member of the company_ whereas 会社の者 is not equally idiomatic.
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政党 is an unambiguous term that specifically means " _political_ party", and 党
by itself is originally a word that just means "party (or faction, band,
group, etc)". There are a number of words that contain 党 but have nothing to
do with politics (eg, 私党, 徒党, 悪党, 残党).

The first sentence of a Wikipedia article on a political party almost always
contains 政党 because this is the most unambiguous word. However, when the
context is clearly about politics, saying 政 all the time can be somewhat
redundant, so it's safe to just say 党 in the subsequent parts of the article.
党の方針 and 政党の方針 are interchangeable when you are clearly talking about a
specific political party.

Although uncommonly, 党 can appear in the names of organizations unrelated to
political parties. For example, [Yellow Turban
Army](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Turban_Army) is often referred to
as 黄巾党 in Japan. In fiction, 双蛇党 ([Order of the Twin
Adder](https://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/special/grandcompany/twinadder/))
in _Final Fantasy XIV_ is a military organization (or regime) rather than a
political party, so it's a 党 that is not a 政党. Another example is 闇の一党 ([Dark
Brotherhood](https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Brotherhood_\(Skyrim\))),
an assassin syndicate in _Skyrim_.

(I'm not sure what you mean by (政)党中に(政)党を立てる... A faction in a political
party is normally called 派閥.)
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