7.2 Political Parties:
Organizing Voters, Ideas, and Power
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.
Without political parties, politics can become scattered and difficult to follow. Individual citizens may care about taxes, education, immigration, war, religion, the economy, civil rights, or public safety, but it is hard for every person to act alone. Political parties gather many issues together into broader platforms and present voters with organized choices.
A party platform is a statement of the party’s general beliefs, goals, and policy positions. It tells voters what the party claims to support and what it wants government to do. Not every member of a party agrees with every part of the platform, but the platform gives the party a public identity.
The Functions of Political Parties
Political parties perform several important functions.
- First, parties organize voters. They encourage people to register, vote, volunteer, donate, attend events, and support candidates. Parties try to build coalitions, which are groups of people who may not agree on everything but agree enough to work together politically.
- Second, parties recruit and support candidates. A party may help choose who runs for office, provide campaign funding, train candidates, organize volunteers, and promote candidates to the public. This helps voters identify which candidates are connected to which political ideas.
- Third, parties simplify political choices. In a large country with millions of people and thousands of candidates, voters cannot personally study every issue or every politician in detail. Party labels give voters a shortcut. If a voter generally agrees with a party’s values, that voter may be more likely to trust candidates from that party.
- Fourth, parties help organize government after elections. When party members win office, they often work together to pass laws, block opposing policies, choose legislative leaders, and shape the direction of government. In this way, parties do not only help people win elections; they also help govern after elections are over.
Political parties can strengthen democracy by giving citizens a way to organize their opinions and hold leaders accountable. If a party fails to represent its voters, citizens can support another party, pressure the party to change, or form a new political movement.
Problems Created By Political Parties
However, political parties can also create problems.
Parties may encourage loyalty to the group over loyalty to truth, justice, or the common good. People may defend their party even when it acts corruptly or dishonestly. Politicians may care more about defeating the opposing party than solving real problems.
Political parties can also contribute to polarization. Polarization happens when political groups become sharply divided and increasingly hostile toward one another. When party identity becomes too strong, people may begin to see political opponents not just as wrong, but as dangerous or evil.
In some political systems, one party becomes so powerful that real competition disappears. A one-party system may still hold elections, but citizens may not have a meaningful choice. In other systems, several parties compete freely, allowing voters to choose from a wider range of political views.
The number of major parties in a country often depends on its electoral system. Some systems encourage two large parties. For example, the United States is often described as a two-party system because the Democratic and Republican parties dominate national elections. Other systems make it easier for many smaller parties to win representation.
Political parties are not the same thing as government, but they are one of the main ways people try to influence government. They organize voters, ideas, candidates, and power into a form that can compete within the political system.
In section 7.3, we will look more closely at elections, the process through which political power is formally chosen.