Interest groups do not usually try to govern directly. Instead, they try to influence the people and institutions that make political decisions. One of the main ways they do this is through lobbying, advocacy, and political pressure.
8.2 Lobbying, Advocacy, and Political Pressure Read More »
In a democracy, citizens do not only influence government by voting. They also influence politics by organizing around shared interests, concerns, identities, industries, professions, values, and causes. These organized groups are called interest groups.
8.1 Interest Groups: How Organized Groups Influence Politics Read More »
Module 8 explains how organized groups, lobbying, elites, and media shape political power beyond elections. It begins by showing that interest groups allow citizens, professions, industries, and advocacy organizations to influence public policy without directly trying to win office. These groups can help represent concerns, provide expertise, and keep issues visible between elections, but they can also create problems when wealthy or highly organized interests gain much more influence than ordinary citizens.
8.0 Political Science Module 8: Interest Groups & Power in Society Read More »
An electoral system is the set of rules used to turn votes into political power. Elections allow people to vote, but electoral systems determine what those votes actually produce. They decide how winners are chosen, how seats are distributed, how districts are drawn, and whether small parties have a realistic chance of gaining power.
7.4 Electoral Systems: How Votes Become Political Power Read More »
Elections are one of the main ways political power is chosen in modern political systems. An election is a formal process where people vote to choose leaders, representatives, or policies. Elections can be used to choose presidents, legislators, governors, mayors, judges, local officials, or members of parliament. In some cases, elections are also used to decide specific laws or constitutional changes.
7.3 Elections: How Political Power Is Chosen Read More »
Political parties are organizations that try to gain political power by influencing government and winning elections. A political party usually brings together people who share similar ideas, interests, goals, or policy preferences. Parties help organize political life by connecting citizens, candidates, elected officials, and government institutions.
7.2 Political Parties: Organizing Voters, Ideas, and Power Read More »
Political participation is the way ordinary people take part in political life. In every political system, government has power over laws, taxes, courts, police, education, public services, war, trade, and many other areas of life. Political participation is one way citizens, residents, and organized communities try to influence how that power is used.
7.1 Political Participation: How Citizens Influence Government Read More »
Module 7 explains how citizens influence government through participation, parties, elections, and electoral systems. It begins by defining political participation as the many ways ordinary people try to shape public life, from voting and joining parties to protesting and organizing. It then shows how political parties organize voters, candidates, and ideas into groups that compete for power and help structure political choice. The module also explains that elections are one of the main formal ways political power is chosen and leaders are held accountable.
7.0 Political Science Module 7: Political Participation, Parties, and Elections Read More »
Governments do not only divide power between branches. They also divide power across levels. A country may have a national government, regional governments, state governments, provincial governments, city governments, county governments, or local councils. One of the major questions in political science is how power is divided between them.
6.4 Federal, Unitary, and Confederal Systems Read More »
Governments can organize executive and legislative power in different ways. Three common systems are (1) presidential systems, (2) parliamentary systems, and (3) semi-presidential systems.
6.3 Presidential, Parliamentary, and Semi-Presidential Systems Read More »
