American Government and Politics Today, Brief Edition, 2014-2015

154 PART Two • The PolITIcs of AmeRIcAn DemocRAcy

Independent

A voter or candidate who

does not identify with a

political party.

Also in 1995, both the House and the Senate adopted new rules on gifts and travel

expenses provided by lobbyists. The House adopted a flat ban on gifts, while the Senate

established limits: senators were prohibited from accepting any gift with a value of more

than $50 and from accepting gifts worth more than $100 from a single source in a given

year. These gift rules stopped the broad practice of taking members of Congress to lunch

or dinner at high-priced restaurants, but the various exemptions and exceptions have

allowed much gift giving to continue.

Recent legislation. The regulation of lobbying resurfaced as an issue in 2005 after a

number of scandals. When the Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007, one

of their initial undertakings was ethics and lobbying reform. In the first one hundred hours

of the session, the House tightened its rules on gifts and on travel funded by lobbyists. The

Senate followed shortly thereafter.

In September 2007, President George W. Bush signed the Honest Leadership and

Open Government Act. Under the new law, lobbyists must report quarterly, and the regis-

tration threshold is $10,000 in spending per quarter. Organizations must report coalition

activities if they contribute more than $5,000 to a coalition. The House and the Senate

must now post lobbying information in a searchable file on the Internet. In a significant

alteration to legislative practices, “earmarked” expenditures, commonly called “pork,”

must now be identified and made public. This last change has not always had its intended

effect of reducing earmarks, however, because it turns out that many legislators are actu-

ally proud of their “pork” and are happy to tell the folks back home all about it.

PolITIcAl PARTIes

In The unITeD sTATes

Every two years, usually starting in early fall, the media concentrate on the state of the

political parties. Prior to an election, a typical poll usually asks the following question: “Do

you consider yourself to be a Republican, a Democrat, or an independent?” For many

years, Americans were divided fairly evenly among these three choices. Today, about 40

percent of all voters call themselves independents, although in fact three-quarters or

more of all independents lean toward either the Republicans or the Democrats.

In the United States, being a member of a political party does not require paying dues,

passing an examination, or swearing an oath of allegiance. If nothing is really required to

be a member of a political party, what, then, is a political party? As discussed earlier in this

chapter, a political party is a group that seeks to win elections, operate the government,

and determine public policy. Political parties are thus quite different from interest groups,

which, as mentioned, seek to influence, not run, the government.

functions of Political

Parties in the united states

Political parties in the United States engage in a wide variety of activities, many of which

are discussed in this chapter. Through these activities, parties perform a number of func-

tions for the political system. These functions include the following:

1. Recruiting candidates for public office. Because it is the goal of parties to gain control
   of government, they must work to recruit candidates for all elective offices.


2. Organizing and running elections. Although elections are a government activity, polit-
   ical parties actually organize voter-registration drives, recruit volunteers to work at the

LO4: Cite some of the major
activities of U.S. political parties,
and discuss how they are
organized.

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