Mr. Kallusingh

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The purpose of political parties is to give the people a voice, nominate candidates, inform and activate supporters, control candidates, govern, act as a watchdog
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Two-Party system started with the federalist and anti-federalist, and continues the main reason it continues is that people can be stuck in their ways

POLITICAL PARTIES NATIONAL ORGANIZATION
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National Convention- comes together to chose the
Presidential and vice-presidential candidates
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National Committee- is comprised of the major political figures in the party, mainly is in charge of planning the national convention
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National Chairperson- helps with party unity, raising money, and recruiting new voters
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Congressional Campaign Committee- is in charge of selecting candidates to run for congress

POLITICAL PARTIES STATE AND LOCAL LEVEL
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State Organization- look for party unity, finding candidates, campaign funds
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Local Organization- local structures are so different across the nation that it is hard to define, most work within their ward/ precincts at election times

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In multiparty systems coalitions need to be formed to have a majority and avoid constant change and upheaval, coalitions are agreements among competing party groups to work together to form a majority

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Ideological Parties- focus on a comprehensive view of social, economic, and political matters; have usually been long lived
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Single-issue Parties- usually focus on one issue i.e. slavery, abortion; fade away as the issue becomes less prevalent

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Economic Protest Parties- a rooted in periods of economic discontent; disappear as the economy gets better
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Splinter Parties- usually rally around a strong personality that leaves a major political party; go away when the candidate returns to their original party

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Are private organization that tries to persuade public officials to follow their beliefs
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Interest groups are not concerned with broad concepts; they do not care who is elected but do care about what they do; they are not accountable to the public but to their members

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Business Groups- promote the interest of their individual business or business type
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Labor Groups- are workers in a similar field; they press the government for favorable policies in their field
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Agricultural Groups- farmers makeup less than
2% of the population; different groups usually compete against each other (dairy vs. soy)

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Professional Groups- occupations that require extensive training i.e. medicine, law, teaching; usually are not very organized; want to promote profession and influence policy
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Groups that promote causes like NRA,
American Civil Liberties Union, and Planned
Parenthood

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Groups that promote welfare like the American
Legion, the Veterans of Foreign wars, and AARP
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Religious Organizations that promote their religion
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Public-Interest groups try and promote the well being of all people and not a particular segment of society

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Give public information, build positive image of group, promote favorable legislation
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Use propaganda to make people believe their argument to be true regardless of the truth
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Lobbyist try to influence the policies that are put into place to help their own interest groups,
Lobbying Disclosure Act 1995 tries to regulate this influence

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The right to vote started with white male land owners and has expanded to any citizen over
18 is eligible to vote
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Each state has the right to control voting qualifications, but they must follow certain federal guidelines and can be overridden by the federal government

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Voter qualifications citizenship, residence, age, registration
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Sociological Factors- lower-income voters tend to be more democratic and higher income are more republican; more educated tends to vote republican; women more demo men more repub; young more demo older more repub; protestants more repub, Catholics and Jews more demo;

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The nomination process can be done by the caucus, convention, or a direct/ open primary
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People use secret ballots to vote by their precinct in a polling place; if you can not be present to vote you can request an absentee ballot

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Campaign spending is mostly used on the
Presidential election 2000 1.5 billion dollars
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Campaign funding can come from many different sources small contributors, wealthy individuals, candidates (Perot $65 million), political action committees PAC, temporary organizations; people giving money either like the party or want something in return

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The government has enacted a few laws that try and regulate how much money can be given to campaigns, but parties have found loopholes and exploited them

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Public opinion is a group of people that believe the same thing; these beliefs come from personal experience
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Another influence on public opinion is mass media tv, newspaper, magazine, radio, internet