Political Parties: Mobilizing Agents
After completing this session, you will be able to:
- Understand the nature of American political parties.
- Describe how political parties connect citizens to political
- Describe the major functions of political parties.
- Illustrate the differences between the parties.
This unit explores the nature and roles of political parties in
American politics. Despite a widespread belief that parties are
irrelevant, the unit demonstrates that they are major contributors
to the democratic process. The unit will illustrate the activities
that parties engage in-activities that, if not performed by parties,
would still need to be performed by some organization. Unit 12 also
demonstrates that in terms of policy, parties matter.
Political parties are loose coalitions of citizens sharing
political goals and organizing to achieve those goals by electing
candidates to public office. The primary function of political parties
is to enable fellow partisans to win political office. By examining
three dimensions of political parties-parties in the electorate,
party organizations, and parties in the government-we can gain a
better understanding of the unique role of political parties in
the American republic.
All citizens who identify with a particular party and label themselves
as party members make up the party in the electorate. Approximately
two-thirds of the U.S. electorate identify with the two major parties,
the Republicans and the Democrats. But the number of strong party
identifiers has diminished since the 1960s and more people consider
themselves independents or identify with a minor political party-such
as the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, or the Reform Party-than
Party organizations at the national, state, and local levels
recruit candidates for partisan elective offices and provide a variety
of services including training and financial support. Party organizations
elect national, state, and local chairmen and chairwomen, and hold
elections among the party faithful for various other paid and volunteer
positions. Parties also support their candidates and issues by recruiting
armies of volunteers to help their candidates reach out to potential
voters, to register new voters, and to encourage their party members
to vote on election day. Major and minor party organizations also
develop party platforms that outline the policy positions
and general governing philosophy of each party.
Office-holders at the national, state, and local levels who run
under the banner of a political party make up the party in the
government. The president is considered the head of his party
in government, while legislatures at the national and state level
elect their own leaders and organize themselves into party caucuses
that attempt to enact the party's agenda. Typically, the party that
holds a majority in national and state legislatures gets to choose
the legislature's committee and subcommittee chairs, and often gets
a greater share of legislative offices and staff budgets.
In developing policy positions, parties attempt to build large coalitions
of people of widely diverse views by controlling and moderating
conflict among and between different groups in society. As such,
parties can be a force for stability in a fragmented political system
that is subject to great cleavages between economic classes, geographical
regions, and groups with widely divergent ethnic, religious, and
ideological identities. Because the Constitution's framers designed
a complex political system that purposefully divides power and ensures
regular conflict among national and state political institutions,
parties have tried to provide incentives for politicians and institutions
to coordinate their efforts to enact policies of mutual interest.