Political+Parties+-+Roles+and+Functions

=Political Parties- Roles and Functions= By: Taylor Bond, Jon Qian, and Aziza Alam

Introduction In the early times of our country, George Washington believed that “if a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.” Political parties are the foundations of American government. A **political party **is defined as an organized effort by office holders, candidates, activists, and voters to pursue their common interests by gaining and exercising power through the electoral process. The goals of a political party are to support candidates and get as many of them elected into office as possible. Once in office, these candidates can work to achieve the desires and goals of the party. Political parties allow candidates to compete for office and exercise the government’s democratic duties by representing the different desires of American citizens. Because citizens have competing views on many issues, the parties seek to represent different views and differentiate themselves through their party platforms. Party platforms stating the party’s stance on key issues and distinguishes one party from another. The most important role or function of political parties is representing the groups and individuals who associate themselves with the party. **Roles of Parties: ** Political parties have a variety of profound roles in government. They must serve the interests of their members, support campaigns and candidates and function successfully in government. The major roles of political parties include:

**Functions: ** Introduction The organization of political parties constitute different functions at different levels of government. Political parties are organized in a tiered fashion. At the top are parties at the national level, followed by the state level, and then local levels at the bottom. Each of these levels have different functions. In general, the organizations of the National party carry out many fundraising activities to run presidential candidates. At the state and local levels, many people help to get people to vote for the candidates on Election Day.  Above: The tiered structure of the United States party system. //Analysis Question: Consider how the different levels of the political party system relate to the different roles and functions of the national, state and local levels. As you read, compare the national levels and local levels - how does each impact the political process?// National Level: At the very top of the tier that is United States party system, sits the National Party. The **National Party’s** primary function is to establish a cohesive vision for partisan identifiers and to spread and disperse that vision to party members and voters.
 * 1) __//Selecting and nominating candidates//__ - The main difference between political parties and **interest groups**, a collection of people or organizations that tries to influence public policy, is that political parties run candidates while interest groups do not. One of the primary roles of the political party is to carefully select a candidate who they wish to represent their party during elections. This role is extremely important, as the selected individual contains the chance for the party’s views to be expressed if the candidate is elected for office.
 * 2) __//R//__//__aising money__ -// Political parties often spend a great deal of time raising money for their causes, especially during important elections such as the midterm or presidential elections. The parties raise this money to finance their causes and spread the word about their candidates, among other things. Parties have progressively developed a web of donors made up of individuals, **Political Action Committees, lobbyists **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**,** and through **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">hard money **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**.** Many laws and regulations help stabilize the amount of money given to a political party, such as the limit placed by the **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Federal Election Commission **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">of a $2,500 maximum donation from individuals.
 * 3) <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">__//Mobilizing voters//__ - Another important role of the political party is to mobilize voters and increase the number of voters. The parties wish to expand the average American citizen’s knowledge on their candidate prior to the election so as to increase the chances of more people voting for that candidate. Political parties often attempt to “get out the vote” in efforts to raise the percentage and amounts of people voting during elections. This is done in a variety of complex and cultured ways, such as media projects, public events, and public opinion polls. The Republicans have used the method of **“** **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">micro-targeting **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**”** to inform themselves on potential voters. This method is a derivative of consumer advertising in that it analyzes the interests, habits, and past voting behavior of individuals and place any potential voters in a “Voter Vault.” Volunteers then use emails, telephones, and mail to contact the individuals listed in the Voter Vault and try to confirm their votes.
 * 4) __//F//__<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">__//orming and promoting policy to represent party members//__ - It is the role of the political parties to form and promote party policy that represents all members of their party, and this is generally done in the **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">national party platform **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**,** a statement of the general and specific philosophy and policy goals of a political party, usually promulgated at the national convention. The party platform shows the voters exactly where the party stands on various issues and is a backdrop for candidates of that party to draw their views from. It also compares its policies with an opposing party, praising its own decisions and condemning the opponent’s. Statistics show that about 66% of the policy promises stated by the winning candidate’s party are successfully implanted into public policy. However, the losing party also manages to incorporate 50% of its policy as well.
 * 5) __//<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">M //__<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">__//onitoring opposing parties in power//__ - It is important for the party not in power to monitor opposing parties in government so that the public can be notified of any wrongdoing. Usually during campaign processes, parties will expose the mistakes and wrongdoings of the opposing party and its candidate. Also, parties act as watchdogs to ensure that policies being enacted by opposing parties are reasonable and do not majorly oppose a large chunk of the population’s needs and desires.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Within the National Party is a **National Chairperson** who leads the National Party. This person is selected by the president or the nominated presidential candidate. During the four years between elections, the National Chairperson works as a spokesperson and a mediator for the party and its decisions. The National Chairperson also works to compromise discord, negotiate altercations between candidates, and develop the machinery for the upcoming election. It is necessary that the chair helps to balance the interests of all potential candidates and to remain strictly neutral. This is an extremely hard task and taking sides would damage the effectivity of the party’s decisions and create opposition and conflict within one party. Some would argue that the chair’s most important responsibility is to raise funds for the election and ensure that the party is financially stable and strong. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The **National Committee** has responsibilities of making arrangements for the national conventions and coordinating presidential campaigns. The **Democratic National Committee**, or DNC, was established in 1848 and the **Republican National Committee,** or RNC, was established in 1956. Relatively affiliated with DNC and RNC are national committees created by the congressional party caucuses in both houses. Senate campaign committees have also been established shortly after the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment. Therefore, the national party committee, the House committee, and the Senate committee make up a three componented set up, same with modern times. All of the national committees have become important serve-oriented components in politics. The congressional campaign committee's major goal is to serve to maximum the number of seats its party has in Congress. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">National Convention **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, the ultimate governing body for the party,is held for each party every four years. This is a party meeting held in the presidential election year for the purposes of nominating a presidential and vice presidential ticket and adopting a platform. Delegates are selected to the convention, however the Democratic Party also allows officials to serve as **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">superdelegates **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">who are not pledged to a candidate and allow the party to maintain some control over the selection process. These delegates give the party some control over the selection process in addition to allowing other delegates to be bound to his or her represented people. The Democratic and Republican parties usually take their delegates from their most elite groups, who have the greater income and usually more educated. Today, national conventions act as important pep rallies to influence and engage supporters and undecided voters. //<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the 2012 Democratic National Convention, former President Bill Clinton gave a few remarks about current President Barack Obama. He noted that he wanted to nominate a man who stopped us from sliding into another depression and is on the road to a brighter path. Why do you think candidates at national conventions use an incredibly inspirational speaker like Bill Clinton? Is it fair if people vote for a candidate only because he or she is supported by a former President? //

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">State and Local Levels: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">States are entirely in control of all government party regulation. Also, a great majority of party leadership positions are suffused at the subnational levels. Party committees at the state and local levels provide a base of support for candidates. The precinct (smallest voting unit) is the fundamental building block of the party with more than 100,000 active ones in the United States. The work of precinct committee members is enhanced by party committees above them (those higher in the tiered party system). States also have central committees which are supervising bodies of the local party organizations. State parties are free to act within the limits set by the state legislatures, with interference from the national party occurring only during the selection of presidential convention delegates. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">State and local parties have been increasingly efficacious in carrying out many different activities to support candidates. Volunteers act at local state and local levels and perform many necessary jobs to help gain support for their candidate. This may include fundraising, distributing literature, helping with events, publicity, and encouraging people to get out to vote, or **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">GOTV **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. At the very bottom of the political party system are those who come to vote. Without voters, none of the other levels of party organizations would have functions. The voters’ role in the system is to choose candidates who they want to be represented by in the government and provide a base for candidates’ platforms and policy ideas and opinions. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Interest Groups and Organizations: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Political parties may also be influenced by interest groups and organizations. These groups are part of the political parties and help to try to influence policy, form policy, and support parties and/or candidates. These groups do not run candidates for office. The Democratic party is affiliated with a myriad of different interest groups, most importantly are labor groups, teachers, civil rights groups, and progressive groups. The Republican party usually has the support of businesses, fundamentalist and traditionalists, Christian groups, and the United States Chamber of Commerce. Automated from political parties are **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">think tanks **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, institutional collections of policy-oriented researchers and academics who are sources of policy ideas. These are important in influencing policy ideas and platforms. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Third Parties: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Currently, the United States has a two-party system consisting of Democrats and Republicans. However, the Constitution does not mention political parties and therefore, it is possible that a third party can be formed to represent new ideas or underrepresented groups. However, third parties may be unsuccessful due to the Electoral College system and rules for public financing the presidential elections. Also, the United States’ **winner take all system** requires that interests be grouped into as few parties as possible for success. Usually third parties are created when the public is dissatisfied with the performance of the major parties. Shown in the past, third parties usually gain more power when their are social movements. For example, the Liberty and Free Soil Parties was created based on the issue of abortion. Third parties can also be created during a time of great dispute or sectionalism shown in the break of the Dixiecrats from the Democrats in the late 1940s. ==<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Vocab: ==

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">political party **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** an organization of office holders, candidates, activists, and voters to pursue their common interests by gaining and exercising power through the electoral process.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">interest groups **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** a collection of people or organizations that tries to influence public policy.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Political Action Committees (PACs) **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">:an officially government recognized organization that privately raises money and employs lobbyists to influence legislation.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">lobbyists **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** people who seek to influence politicians or public officials on an issue.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">hard money **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** money given directly to a candidate in an election to assist his or her campaign

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Federal Election Commission (FEC) **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">: an independent regulatory agency that was founded in 1975 by the United States Congress to regulate the campaign finance legislation in the United States. It was created in a provision of the 1975 amendment to the Federal Election Campaign Act

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">micro-targeting **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** a method of analyzing potential voters through consumer market techniques, and to track individual voters and identify potential supporters.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">national party platform **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** a statement of the general and specific philosophy and policy goals of a political party, usually promulgated at the national convention.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">National Party **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** sitting on the pinnacle of the party system in the United States, it’s primary function is to establish a cohesive vision for partisan identifiers and to spread and disperse that vision to party members and voters.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">National Chairperson **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** a person selected by the president or the nominated presidential candidate and leader of the National Party who works as a spokesperson and a mediator for the party and its decisions.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">National Committee **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** responsible of making arrangements for the national conventions and coordinating presidential campaigns. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) was established in 1848, and the Republican National Committee (RNC) was established in 1956.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">National Convention **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** the ultimate governing body for the party held in the presidential election year for the purposes of nominating a presidential and vice presidential ticket and adopting a platform.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">superdelegates **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** delegates in the Democratic partywho are not pledged to a candidate and allow the party to maintain some control over the selection process.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">precinct **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** the smallest voting unit usually made up of a few neighborhoods and is the fundamental building block of the party.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Get Out to Vote (GOTV) **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** a term used to describe the activities political parties do during election day to try and increase voter turnout.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">think tanks **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**:** institutional collections of policy-oriented researchers and academics who are sources of policy ideas.

**<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">winner take all system: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">an electoral system in which the party that receives at least one more vote than any other party wins the election.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Scholarly Articles:
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is an article from May 21, 2012 a few months before the 2012 presidential election. It asks the question: who is the election really for? The people? Or the interest groups? It talks about how the Wall Street Interest Group, the “cash cow” of American politics,Super PACs and their incredibly large donations to the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney. Click [|here.]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 17px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This article from October 26, 2012 predicts the impact third party candidates will have on the 2012 presidential election. Barack Obama states that the votes given to the minor candidates, Johnson of the Libertarian Party and Goode of the Constitution Party, will be out of Romney’s voters. Click [|here.]

Section Review Questions: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1) What is the major difference between political parties and interest groups?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2) Who is in charge of keeping a political party financially stable? How are some ways that political parties raise money for campaigns?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3) What is micro-targeting and how is it used by the Republican Party?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4) What is the major goal of the congressional campaign committee?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5) What’s the difference between superdelegates and ordinary delegates in a national convention of the Democratic Party?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6) What are some ways volunteers help contribute to a political party?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">7) List the five major roles of political parties.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">8) What is a party platform?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">9) What are think tanks?

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">10) Does the Constitution mention Third Parties? Why are they formed? <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For answers, click [|here.]

Works Cited:
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.drewmckissick.com/free_tags/political_parties__]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/The-Functions-of-Political-Parties.topicArticleId-65383,articleId-65501.html__]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.shmoop.com/political-parties/role-political-parties.html__]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">__[]__
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|__http://www.u.arizona.edu/~norrande/pol231/org-06-bw.pdf__]