American Government Study Guide

Chapter 5 Political Parties and Interest Groups

Overview Political parties and interest groups have been a major party of the political system since the begin- ning of our nation. Understanding their in�luence and the role they play is essential to evaluating the effectiveness of the American political system. Learning Objectives 1. Identify relevant political parties of the past and present. 2. Understand the two- party system and the in�luence in has on the nation. 3. Identify the role of interest groups. 4. Understand how interest groups effect elections. 5.1 What are Political Parties? It is natural for people of similar background and beliefs to group up together. In the American polit- ical system, this is also the case. People will have different beliefs and ideologies, but there will be common threads between people. The best way to in�luence the political climate and social policies is to group up with like-minded people and for political parties . Political parties are groups of people with similar ideas on government and public policies that form a common platform of ideas. A party platform is just a list of stances on issues that every member roughly agrees upon within the political party. The primary way a political party can implement change or effect government policies is to win elec- tions. Candidates that have the support of the political party in�luence government through the of- �ices they acquire. Political parties coordinate campaigns to get people elected for positions at all levels of government. The end goal is to hold as many positions as they can to gain a majority to be the most effective they can be at getting their party platform as the main platform for the nation. 5.2 Formation of Political Parties At the beginning of the United States, political parties weren’t something on a national scale as we see today. Most of the political parties were localized and they focused on gaining local in�luence. Issues like communication and transportation of ideas limited the access to national politics. Today, we can seamlessly navigate the candidates and the issues online or through news sources, but most people lacked the basic access to information about people they could vote for in elections.

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