Political parties in the US began with Federalists versus Democratic-Republicans and evolved into the modern Democratic and Republican parties. Interest groups try to influence policy through lobbying elected officials and mobilizing public support. Both parties and interest groups play important roles in elections, policymaking, and representing various constituencies in the political process.

1. Political Parties and Interest
Groups

2. POLITICAL PARTIES

3. • political party – a group of office holders,
candidates, activists, and voters who
identify with a group label and seek to
elect to public office individuals who run
under that label.
• interest group – an organized group that
tries to influence public policy

4. The Birth of American Political Parties
• George Washington was unifying, no
parties
• Adams (Federalist) versus Jefferson
(Anti-Federalists)
• Federalists versus “Democratic-
Republicans”

5. The Early Parties Fade (1824)
• Democratic-Republicans become
Democrats (Jackson)
• Whigs (Henry Clay) become
Republicans (Lincoln)

6. Democrats and Republicans:
The Golden Age (1874-1912)
• Two parties stable and dominant
• political machine – a party organization
that recruits voter loyalty with tangible
incentives and is characterized by a high
degree of control over member activity
• Parties provided social services and
entertainment to immigrants in urban
areas, generating intense loyalty

7. The Modern Era
• Government has assumed party functions of
printing ballots, conducting elections and
providing social welfare services
• direct primary – the selection of party
candidates through the ballots of qualified
voters rather than at party nominating
conventions
• civil service laws – these acts removed the
staffing of the bureaucracy from political
parties and created a professional bureaucracy
filled through competition

8. The Modern Era
• issue-oriented politics – politics that focus on
specific issues rather than on party, candidate,
or other loyalties
• ticket-split – to vote for candidates of different
parties for various offices in the same election
• candidate-centered politics – politics that
focus directly on the candidates, their particular
issues, and character, rather than on party
affiliation.

9. Realignment
• party realignment – a shifting of party
coalition groupings in the electorate that
remains in place for several elections
• critical election – an election that
signals a party realignment through
voter polarization around new issues

10. Three significant critical elections in
U.S. history
• Jefferson, Democratic-Republican, 1800,
reaction against Federalists
• Lincoln, Republican, 1860, slavery
• Franklin D. Roosevelt, Democrat, 1932,
depression

11. Secular Realignment
• secular realignment – the gradual
rearrangement of party coalitions, based
more on demographic shifts than on
shocks to the political system.
• dealignment – a general decline in
party identification and loyalty in the
electorate
– Fewer voters willing to profess party choice
– Parties provide way to address
irreconcilable differences

15. What Do Parties Do?
• Mobilizing Support and Gathering Power
– Leaders can mobilize support for policies
– http://www.democrats.org/
– http://www.gop.com/
• A Force for Stability and Moderation
– Can bring together opposing groups
• New Deal (African Americans & southern whites)
• Unity, Linkage and Accountability
– Individual liberty versus timely action

16. What Do Parties Do?
• The Electioneering Function
– Provide candidates
– Balanced competition
– Fundraising for campaigns
– Media divisions, volunteers

17. What Do Parties Do?
• Party as a Voting and Issue Cue
– Benefits least informed and least interested
voters
• Policy Formulation and Promotion
– national party platform – a statement of the
general and specific philosophy and policy
goals of a political party, usually promulgated
at the national convention

18. What Do Parties Do?
• Legislative Organization
– Parties organize and operate Congress
– Parties today are more unified in Congress

19. Crashing the Party: Minor Parties in
the American Two-Party System
• Tend to organize around neglected issues
• Usually absorbed into one or the other
major party

20. The Party Organization
• National Committees
– RNC and DNC (presidential campaigns)
– Congressional campaign committees
• Leadership
– Chairman serves as spokesperson for party

21. The Party Organization
• National Conventions
– national convention – a party meeting held
in the presidential election year for the
purposes of nominating a presidential and
vice presidential ticket and adopting a
platform.
• States and Localities
– Most party structure is based in states and
localities

22. Sources of Party Identification
• party identification – a citizen’s personal
affinity for a political party, usually
expressed by a tendency to vote for the
candidates of that party

23. Party Identification
• Group Affiliations
– Gender, race and ethnicity, age, occupation,
religion
• Women, African-Americans, Hispanics more
Democratic
• Old/young favor Democrats, middle Republicans
• Executives, professionals, white-collar Republican;
trial lawyers, educators, blue-collar Democrat
• Democratic support drops with rise in income
• White protestants Republican; Catholics/Jews
Democrat

24. INTEREST GROUP
STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS

25. Interest Group Formation
• social capital – the myriad relationships
that individuals enjoy that facilitate the
resolution of community problems through
collective action.

26. What Do Interest Groups Do?
• What Do Interest Groups Do?
– Lobbying
• lobbying – the activities of a group or organization
that seeks to influence legislation and persuade
political leaders to support the group’s position
• lobbyist – interest group representative who
seeks to influence legislation that will benefit his or
her organization or client through political
persuasion

27. What Do Interest Groups Do?
• Lobbying Congress
– congressional testimony, letters, contributions, payments
• Lobbying the Executive Branch
– information, public opinion
• Lobbying the Courts
– sponsorship, amicus curiae briefs
• Grassroots Lobbying
– mobilize individuals to contact their representatives
• Protests and Radical Activism
– visible events, media attention

28. What Do Interest Groups Do?
Election Activities
• Candidate Recruitment and Endorsements
– recruit, endorse and support candidates
• Getting Out the Vote
– get voters to the polls, education, registration
• Rating the Candidates or Office Holders
– candidate report cards
• Political Action Committees
– political action committee (PAC) – Federally
mandated, officially registered fund-raising committee
that represents interest groups in the political process.