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Chapter 5
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Ch. 5
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1 - Parties and what they do
5-1 Guided Reading
5-1 Quiz
5-1 Summary
2
- The two-party system
5-2 Guided Reading
5-2 Quiz
5-2 Summary
3 - Skip Sec. 3
4 - The Minor Parties
5-4 Guided Reading
5-4 Quiz
5-4 Summary
5 - Party Organization
5-5 Guided Reading
5-5 Quiz
5-5 Summary
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Chapter 5 - Political Parties - Notes
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GOP Convention 2004
Ch. 5 – Sec. 1 Notes – Parties and what they do
- A political party is a group of people who try to control government by winning elections and holding public offices.
- The United States’ two major parties are the Republicans and the Democrats.
- Political parties are essential to democratic government.
- Parties help link the people and their wishes to government action.
- Parties also help unify the people by finding compromise among contending views.
- Political parties perform five major functions.
- First, they nominate, or name, candidates for public office.
- Parties present these candidates to the voters and then gather support for them.
- Second, parties inform the people and inspire them to participate in public affairs.
- Third, political parties help ensure that their candidates and officeholders are qualified and of good character.
- Fourth, political parties have some governing responsibilities.
- Congress and State legislatures are organized along party lines.
- They conduct much of their business based on partisanship, or firm allegiance to a political party.
- Fifth, parties act as watchdogs over the conduct of government.
- The party out of power keeps an especially close eye on the policies and behavior of the party in power.
Functions of Political Parties
Ch. 5 – Sec. 2 Notes – The Two Party System
- In the United States, there is a two-party system.
- Two major political parties dominate politics.
- Minor parties, or those without wide support, also exist.
- The first two American political parties arose during the ratification of the Constitution
- Several factors have made the two-party system last.
- One basic factor is tradition; the system remains because it has always been.
- Nearly all U.S. elections are single-member district elections.
- Voters choose only one candidate for each office.
- The winner is whoever receives a plurality, or the largest number of votes.
- Most voters tend not to vote for minor party candidates, who are unlikely to win.
- Much of U.S. election law—created by Republicans and Democrats together, or in a bipartisan way—discourages minor parties.
- The United States is a pluralistic society.
- One that consists of distinct cultures and groups.
- Still, there exists a broad consensus—a general agreement among various groups—on fundamental matters.
- Consensus helps eliminate the need for many parties.
- However, alternative political systems exist around the world.
- In a multiparty arrangement, several major and minor parties compete.
- To gain power, a number of parties often form a coalition.
- A union of people with diverse interests who will share power.
- Nearly all dictatorships today have one-party systems.
- Only one party is allowed.
Factors behind a Two-Party System
Ch. 5 – Sec. 3 Skip
Minor Parties
Ch. 5 – Sec. 4 Notes – The Minor Parties
- Four types of minor parties have played a role in American politics.
- Ideological parties are based on certain social, economic, or political ideas.
- They do not often win elections, but they remain active for a long time.
- Single-issue parties focus on one public policy matter.
- They fade away after the issue has been resolved or people lose interest.
- Sometimes they are able to get one of the major parties to take on their issue.
- Economic protest parties appear during tough financial times.
- They criticize the economic actions and plans of the major parties.
- Most of the important minor parties in American politics have been splinter parties
- They are parties that have broken away from one of the major parties.
- Usually they have a strong leader who did not win a major party’s nomination.
- Although most Americans do not support them, minor parties still have an impact on politics and on the major parties.
- The minor parties’ members act as critics and innovators.
- They draw attention to otherwise neglected or controversial issues.
- Strong third-party candidates can also play the “spoiler” role in elections.
- This means that they pull votes away from one of the major parties
- This weakens that party’s ability to win an election.
The Four Types of Minor Parties
Ch. 5 – Sec. 5 Notes – Party Organization
National Committee Chairmen, Democrat, Howard Dean, (Left) and Republican Ken Mehlman (Right).
- The major parties are decentralized, or fragmented.
- At the national level, the party machinery has four basic elements:
- (1) The national convention that nominates the party’s candidates.
- (2) The national committee that runs the party’s affairs between conventions.
- (3) The national chairperson who heads the national committee.
- (4) The congressional campaign committees that work to elect party members to Congress.
- From the perspective of its members, a party has three basic and loosely connected parts.
- (1) The party organization consists of the party machinery’s leaders.
- (2) The party in the electorate refers to those followers who usually vote for the party’s candidates.
- (3) The party in government describes the party’s officeholders.
- At the State and local levels, party structure is largely set by State law.
- At the State level, a central committee is headed by a chairperson.
- Local party structure varies widely, with a party unit for each district in which elections are held.
- The districts include congressional and legislative districts:
- counties, cities and towns, wards, and precincts.
- A ward is a small unit of a city
- A precinct is a subdivision of a ward.
- Political parties have been in decline since the 1960s.
- More and more voters regard themselves as independents.
- Split-ticket voting, or voting for candidates of different parties in the same election, has increased.
The Four
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