Chapter Ten

The Citizen in Government

Electing Leaders

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A Two-Party System

Political Parties• two-party system

• offers choice• provides stability

Political Party = An organization of citizens who have similar views on issues and who work to put their ideas into effect through government action.

• nominate, or select, candidates to run for public office

role of parties• encourage voters to elect candidates that the party favors• take positions on public issues• work to pass laws that they support• offer a practical way for large numbers of people with similar

ideas to get things done• concerned with the actions that government should take• tries to convince the voters that it offers the best program• tries to make sure that the elected leaders do a good job• will watch for and point out any mistakes of the other party

Political Parties

Two-party System = A political system with two strong political parties.

two major political parties for more than 140 years• Democratic Party and Republican Party

• Democratic Party - 1828• traces roots to Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party• tends to be more liberal• favors a greater role for the federal government in providing

social programs• Republican Party – 1854

• formed by people opposed to slavery and its spread• tends to be more conservative• supports reducing the power of the federal government in

operating social programs

Two-Party System

Party Systemsadvantages of two-party systems

• parties have almost equal strength• when one party fails to please a majority of voters, there is

another strong party ready to take over• the newly elected party often tries different programs and

policies in dealing with the country's problems• tend to be quite stable governments

multiparty systems• used by several European countries and India• system with more than two strong political parties

• if all the parties are of about equal strength, no one party can win a majority of votes

• to run the government, two or more of the political parties must often agree to compromises and to work together

• coalition government• can be difficult to form stable governments

Party Systemsone-party system

• country has only one political party• all other political parties are forbidden by law• dictatorships or totalitarian governments

• all power is in the hands of one person or one group of people

one-party government• single party controls the government• people must obey its dictates, or commands• historic examples

• Italy under Benito Mussolini, Germany under Adolf Hitler• modern examples

• communist countries: Cuba, North Korea, People's Republic of China• noncommunist countries: Iraq - Hussein (Ba’ath Party), Libya -

Gaddafi (parties forbidden), Syria - al-Assad (Ba’ath Party)

Third Parties• many minor political parties in the United States• have had great influence at certain times in the country's

historythird party presidential politics

• Progressive Party – 1912• organized by former President Theodore Roosevelt

• Reform Party – 1995• founded by billionaire businessman Ross Perot

• American Independent Party – 1968• segregationist former Alabama Governor George Wallace

• independent candidate – 1980• Representative John Anderson of Illinois

impact of third parties1. proposed new ideas later adopted by the major political parties

• late 1800s Populist Party - direct election of U.S. senators2. spoilers for major candidates

• T. Roosevelt took many votes from Republican candidate William Taft which helped Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson win the presidency