chAPTeR seven • InTeResT GRouPs AnD PolITIcAl PARTIes 155
Party Organization
The formal structure and
leadership of a political
party, including election
committees; local, state,
and national executives;
and paid professional staff.
National Convention
The meeting held every
four years by each major
party to select presidential
and vice-presidential
candidates, write a
platform, choose a
national committee, and
conduct party business.
Party Platform
A document drawn up at
each national convention,
outlining the policies,
positions, and principles of
the party.polls, provide much of the campaign activity to stimulate interest in the election, and
work to increase voter participation.- Presenting alternative policies to the electorate.
- Accepting responsibility for operating the government. When a party elects the presi-
dent or governor—or a majority of the members of a legislative body—it accepts
responsibility for running the government. This includes developing linkages among
elected officials in the various branches of government to gain support for policies
and their implementation. - Acting as the organized opposition to the party in power. The “out” party, or the one
that does not control the government, is expected to articulate its own policies and
oppose the winning party when appropriate.
The major functions of American political parties are carried out by a small, rela-
tively loose-knit nucleus of party activists. This arrangement is quite different from the
more highly structured, mass-membership organization typical of many European parties.
American parties concentrate on winning elections rather than on signing up large num-
bers of deeply committed, dues-paying members who believe passionately in the party’s
program.Party organization
Each of the American political parties is often seen as having a pyramid-shaped organi-
zation, with the national chairperson and committee at the top and the local precinct
chairperson on the bottom. This structure, however, does not accurately reflect the rela-
tive power of the individual components of the party organization. If it did, the national
chairperson of the Democratic Party or the Republican Party, along with the national
committee, could simply dictate how the organization was to be run, just as if it were
ExxonMobil or Apple. In reality, the political parties have a confederal structure, in which
each unit has significant autonomy and is linked only loosely to the other units.The national Party organization. Each party has a national organization, the most
conspicuous part of which is the national convention, held every four years. The con-
vention is used to officially nominate the presidential and vice-presidential candidates. In
addition, the party platform is developed at the national convention. The platform sets
forth the party’s position on the issues and makes promises to initiate certain policies if the
party wins the presidency.
After the convention, the platform sometimes is neglected or ignored when party
candidates disagree with it. Because candidates are trying to win votes from a wide spec-
trum of voters, it can be counterproductive to emphasize the fairly narrow and sometimes
controversial goals set forth in the platform. Still, once elected, the parties do try to carry
out platform promises, and many of the promises eventually become law. Of course, some
general goals, such as economic prosperity, are included in the platforms of both parties.convention Delegates. The party convention provides the most striking illustration
of the difference between the ordinary members of a party, or party identifiers, and
party activists. As a series of studies by the New York Times shows, delegates to the
national party conventions are different from ordinary party identifiers. Delegates to the
Democratic National Convention are far more liberal than ordinary Democratic voters.
Typically, dele gates to the Republican National Convention are far more conservative than
ordinary Republicans. Why does this happen? In part, it is because a person, to become a
dele gate, must be appointed by party leaders or gather votes in a primary election fromCopyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
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