SOL Standard CE.5
To be used with Fasttrack Review Questions
 Political
parties are organizations of citizens
who join their efforts together to have a
bigger voice and more influence in
government.
 Political parties have different views, but
they all do certain things, such as:




Recruiting (finding) and nominating candidates to
run for public office.
Helping their candidates win elections.
Educating the public about current issues.
Monitoring (watching) what officeholders from
other parties are doing.
 1.
What do all political parties try to do for
their own candidates running for public
office?
Help them win elections
 2.
When a political party is recruiting new
candidates, what is it trying to do?
finding new candidates
 3.
When a political party nominates a
candidate, what is it doing?
officially putting forth a candidate to
run for office
 4.
Why do political parties carefully monitor
the actions of officeholders from other
parties?
To broadcast any mistakes the
officeholders might make to the
public in hopes of swaying the next
election their way
 5.
Tell two ways that political parties can
educate the public about campaign issues.
TV advertisements
Speeches
Campaign literature
 Whatever
their differences, political parties
all share certain similarities. Here are some
things they have in common!

They organize and work hard to win elections.

They try to influence public policy (laws).

They include both liberal and conservative views.

They try to appeal to the political center to win
a majority of voters.
 Political
parties agree on some things, but
there are important differences! Let’s look
at where the parties stand on the “political
spectrum” of views that stretches from
liberal to conservative!
 The
Political Spectrum = a way to describe,
in very general terms, the views of
individuals and groups involved in politics
 You
can find exactly where a party stands
on all the big issues of an election by
looking at the party’s platform statement.
 A platform statement is a written
statement of a party’s views on all
important issues.
 Differences are also reflected in campaign
speeches by the candidates, and in
political ads that run in an election year.
 The
political party system of the United
States is best described as a two-party
system.


We have two main political parties.
Democrats & Republicans
 Third



parties: something extra!
Green Party
Libertarian Party
Reform Party
 Third
parties rarely win big elections, but
sometimes do win state and local elections.
Even at the national level, they can affect
politics in many ways!


They introduce new ideas
They bring wider attention to specific public
issues.




Immigration
Abortion
Gay marriage
Tax reform


The Republican Party was a third party when it
formed in the 1850’s as an anti-slavery political
party. With the election of Abraham Lincoln in
1861, it became a major party.
Third parties often revolve around a dynamic
leader or political personality. Theodore
Roosevelt is an example. He ran as the
presidential nominee of the Progressive Party in
1912, although in a previous election he had
been elected to the White House as a
Republican. In a three-way race, “Teddy”
Roosevelt lost that famous election of 1912
to Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic Party
Candidate!
One-Party
System
Two-Party
System
Multi-Party
System
Examples:
Examples:
Examples:
Cuba, China
U.S.A., U.K.
Italy, France
Usual type of government:
Usual type of government:
Usual type of government:
Dictatorship
Democracy
Democracy
The result:
The result:
The result:
No real choice is
allowed. Voting is a
sham.
Gives a choice. Both
parties are usually
somewhat moderate.
Many choices –
including some with
extreme views.