Home

Student Resources

Chapter 8: Political Parties

Get Connected

Get Connected

This activity contains 2 questions.

	The Meaning of Party In the chapter it was noted that one of the things that parties should do is to articulate policies. In other words, parties should advocate specific policy alternatives. Even though it often seems that there are only two political parties in America, there are literally dozens of smaller (third) parties. Each one advocates specific policy alternatives. Go to Politics1.Com and review the policies of several political parties excluding the Republican and Democratic parties. You may have to go to the party's web site if the information isn't provided in the description. Look for interesting and unique policy alternatives. Search Tips You can get to Politics1.Com at http://www.politics1.com/parties.htm. Questions to Ask What are the most extreme policy alternatives you found? Did any of the policy alternatives interest you? If so, would you consider voting for a candidate of that party? Why or why not? If you had to pick, which of the third parties seems most capable of actually becoming an effective party in government? Why it Matters It often seems as though we have few alternatives when it comes to political parties; however, in reality we have a number of alternative parties to choose from in America. Get Involved Did you find one of the alternative parties interesting? If so, send an e-mail requesting information.   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.

	Party Organization As noted in the text, America's national parties are nothing more than aggregations of state parties. Some state parties are highly organized and have full-time staff and office space while others are little more than voluntary organizations. However, only 22 state Democratic parties have paid full-time staff and only 26 state Republican parties have paid full-time staff. Which states are these? Let's find out by sending an e-mail message to 10 state parties asking whether each one has a paid full-time staff. To find the web page for each party, go to the National Political Index's State and Local Party Groups page and click on ten different states. Randomly contact five Republican and 5 Democratic parties and ask the question. Try to vary your states picking some that are large and some that are smaller. You may not receive responses from all, but you'll probably get a response from a few. Be sure to say that you are a student working on a class project. Search Tips Go to the National Political Index's State and Local Party Groups web page at http://www.politicalindex.com/sect9.htm. Questions to Ask How many of the parties you contacted replied? How many have paid full-time staff and how many do not? Do you notice a trend involving big states and small states? If so, what is it? Why it Matters State parties that have full-time staff are much more likely to be active year around, which means policy alternatives are likely being discussed in those states year around. Get Involved Does your state party have a full-time staff? If not, they may rely heavily on interns. If so, you may want to see if they need an intern to work at their office.   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.

Copyright © 1995 - 2010 Pearson Education . All rights reserved. Pearson Longman is an imprint of Pearson . Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Permissions