1. Political Parties Ch. 8, Les. 1 & 2

2. Una fiesta? – A political party is a group of people with broad shared interests who join together to help candidates they support get elected to office

3. Growth of Parties – Political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution – Founders worried that parties would divide and weaken the nation, but they arose because people had different ideas about what the government should do- INEVITABLE – Hamilton led the Federalists, and Jefferson led the Democratic-Republicans – Democrats were born in 1824 with Andrew Jackson – Republicans were born in 1854 with anti-slavery supporters – Between the 1870s and 1930s, the parties switched their platforms

4. Party Systems – In the U.S., we have a TWO-PARTY system – Many democracies have multi-party systems – Canada, France, Israel – One party rarely wins enough support to control the government so parties MUST work together – Some nations have one-party systems – China – No rival candidates run for office so elections are for show – Not democratic

5. Third Parties – Smaller parties that challenge the two main parties – Difficult for them to get on ballots – Influence American politics in important ways – Promote ideas that might be unpopular at first – Serve as competition for the two main parties – Can influence presidential elections by winning electoral votes

6. Types of Third Parties – Single-issue parties: Prohibition Party – Ideological parties: Communist Party – Party based on leader: Reform Party (Ross Perot in the 1990s)

7. Goal? – TO WIN – WHY? – TO GAIN POWER – WHY? – TO GAIN INFLUENCE – HOW? – ORGANIZE AT ALL LEVELS

8. Organization on the National Level – National Committee – members from every state – raises money for presidential elections – organizes national convention – where delegates choose the party’s candidates – nowadays we know the candidates before the convention, but the convention is important for building party unity

9. Organization on the State and Local Level – The 50 state committees work to elect party candidates to state offices such as governor and state legislator – Parties have thousands of city, town, and county committees working to gain support for the party – Each city or county is divided into precincts- a geographic area that has a specific number of voters – Precinct captains build party support on the local level

10. Selecting Party Candidates – One of the jobs of a party is to choose who will be the presidential nominee from that party. This is done through a CAUCUS or DIRECT PRIMARY. – Direct primary- through secret ballot, voters choose candidates to represent the party in a general election – Closed primary- only the declared members of a political party are allowed to vote for that party’s nominees – Open primary- voters need not declare their party preference to vote

11. Positive and negatives to both – Closed- prevents members of one party from crossing over to another to vote for weak candidates, but it prevents independent voters from taking part. – Open- anyone can take part in the primary, including independents and those of the opposing party, but this leaves room for sabotage, as mentioned above.

12. Caucuses – A traditional system of local gatherings where voters decide which candidate to support and select delegates for nominating conventions. – Unique in that they allow participants to openly show support for candidates. – 16 states still hold caucuses – Iowa holds the first and most significant (it’s soon!)

13. Five Functions of Political Parties – Main purpose is to successfully elect candidates to office, but that requires work on in many other areas – Political parties: – Find and support candidates – Communicate with citizens and recruit their votes – Influence laws and policy – Unite different levels and branches of government – As opposition party, acts as watchdog and force balance

14. Review with a little Crash Course – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEmOUHxessE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEmOUHxessE