Political Parties What They Do…

What is a Party? A Political Party- is a group of people who seek to control the Government by winning elections and by holding public office ***BY CONTROLLING EVERYTHING*** There are 2 Types of Political Parties MAJOR and MINOR

2 MAJOR PARTIES IN US Republican Party- “conservative wealth” Democratic Party- “blue collar worker” Multiple Minor Parties exist within the USA

What Do Parties Do? Political Parties are a VITAL link between the people and their government Between the GOVERNED and those who GOVERN They serve as the “voice” of the people, where wishes can be made known… They are negotiators- they work as “power brokers”

Could we survive? The USA government system NEEDS political parties in order to succeed. We must have a structured and organized way of organizing the people’s want, wishes and requests. Political Parties serve ,multiple functions in the USA.

Nominating Committees THE MAJOR FUNCTION of a political party is to NOMINATE, or name, people to political office To have a democratic society there must be a way of finding or recruiting candidates for office

Informing and Activating Supporters Parties Inform and Activate interest in participation in Public Affairs EACH PARTY TRIES TO INFORM PEOPLE AS THEY THINK IT SHOULD BE INFORMED, USUALLY TO THE PARTY’S ADVANTAGE…

Ways Party’s Inform… Pamphlets Booklets Signs Buttons Stickers Advertisements News, TV, Radio, Internet Rallies Conventions, ETC.

The BONDING agent A party acts as a bonding agent to ensure good performance of it’s officeholders, and candidates The Party tries to make certain they choose people to represent them with no blemishes on their public recoord…etc.

Governing Those who Govern are essentially governed by the political party they represent PARTISANSHIP- a firm allegiance to a political party is the basis of Governmental action

WATCHDOG Parties act as a watchdog over the conduct of the public’s business It plays this role as it watches and criticizes the party in power The party OUT OF POWER tries to convince the public they should ‘throw them out’ by replacing the officeholders with their party

The 2 Party System The USA has a two-party system …In a typical election one of the 2 major parties (Democratic or Republican) has a reasonable chance of winning V. a Minor Party Minor Party- A Political Party without wide political support

The Historical Basis… The 2 party system has roots in the very framing of our Constitution The Framers started out divided into 2 distinct parties Federalists and the Anti-Federalists

Tradition of a 2 party system… Simply Said… Most Americans accept the idea of a 2party DOMINANT system, simply because there has ALWAYS been one. It is believed that this strong sense of tradition has kept minor parties from emerging as great powers… America has a 2 Party system because America has a 2 Party System…

The Electoral System Tends to promote the idea of a 2 Party System Single Member District- Almost ALL ELECTIONS held in the USA are ‘single member district’ election ONLY ONE CANDIDATE IS ELECTED AND PLACED IN OFFICE Plurality- When one Candidate recieves the LARGEST amount of votes

Single Member District Pattern Works to discourage MINOR PARTIES When Voting, most people think they can either Vote for a Party’s Candidate OR Vote for the person “most likely” to take the place of the current officeholder Most think of a vote for a MINOR PARTY as a WASTED VOTE

BIPARTISAN BIPARTISAN- when the 2 major parties find middle ground and work together on issues to achieve a common goal

The American Ideological Consensus Americans- Ideologically homogeneous (SAME) people, Americans are NOT ALL ALIKE, but they do have similar ideas and behavior patterns they usually come to a CONSENSUS- a general agreement among various groups on fundamental matters PLURALISTIC SOCIETY-A society consisting of several distinct cultures and groups

MULTIPARTY SYSTEM A system in which several major parties and several lesser parties CO-EXIST Many critics say America should SCRAP the 2 party system and replace it with the multiparty system Produce a broader range in the electorate, and a more diverse representation AN ISSUE: no one party may be able to gain a majority of votes in order to win an election, in turn, a smaller less qualified candidate may win.

COALITION A temporary alliance of several groups who come together to form a working majority and so to control a government

One-Party System REALLY this is a “NO PARTY” system Mostly dictatorships The Party is the ‘party’ of the ruling clique IE- Joseph Stalin, leader of Communist Party and premier of Soviet Union CRUSHED ALL political opposition