1. Political Parties

2. Warm Up "No America without democracy, no democracy without politics, no politics without parties, no parties without compromise and moderation.“ What do you think this quote is saying about the relationship between political parties and democracy?

3. Tuesday, September 22, 2015 Objective: Students will be able to analyze the impact of political changes brought about by individuals, political parties, interest groups, or the media, past and present. Purpose: Parties are important because they are the principal means by which the will of the people is made known to government and by which government is held accountable to the people

4. Roles of Political Parties Nominate candidates for office Inform voters on policy Governing, done based mainly on partisanship (the strong support of their party) Act as the “loyal opposition” (opposed to the party in power but loyal to the people of the nation)

5. The Two-Party System The Federalist and Anti-Federalists were the first political parties This exist because of the electoral system Single-Member Districts: The candidate that wins the largest amount of votes within a district wins the election Many districts favor one party over others, very few districts are actually competitive It also exists because Americans are more ideologically similar to each other than people in other nations (this is called the ideological consensus)

6. Political Ideologies Political Spectrum: the range of political views Conservatives: favor to keep the social, economic, and political structures of society as they are Liberals: favor government action to change unfair social, economic, and political structures

7. Political Party Factions Many subgroups exist within political parties Moderates: favor some conservative and liberal views (this is the group most American voters belong to) Radicals: favor extreme change to create a new political, social, and economic order or restore an earlier new political, social, and economic order Populists: favor policies that go against the interests of the elite in government, the economy, and society

8. Discussion Are the thoughts about political parties that you wrote down in the Warm Up? If not, how have your thoughts about political parties changed? How does the Two-Party system help make our democracy better? What are some of the problems with the Two-Party system?