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U.S. Government
POL 110
Political Parties and Interest Groups
Topics
• The evolution of the two-party system and
the form it takes today
• The discernable differences between the
two parties, and;
• Interest groups and why they proliferate
Two-Party System
• The definition of interest groups, or
factions, and political parties
• The Progressive Party and machine
politics
Two-Party System, Continued
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Institutional interests
Interest groups as organizations
Interest groups and American politics
Political Action Committees (PACs)
Two-Party System, Continued
• The ideological, or third, party
• The solidarity association and sponsored
parties
Two-Party System, Continued
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Machine politics
Ideological party
Third party
Solidarity association
Sponsored parties
The Differences Between the Two Parties
• Two explanations for the two-party system
– Election laws
– Opinions of voters
• The differences between parties
• Candidates capturing the nomination
PROPERTIES
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Interest Groups and Their Proliferation
• Three reasons why interest groups are
important to American politics
– There are differences between voters
– A decentralized constitutional system
– The two major parties are inherently weak
political structures
Interest Groups and Their Proliferation, Continued
• The four factors accounting for the growth
of interest groups since 1960
– Economic development
– Government activism
– The Progressive Party and reform
– Government expansion
Interest Groups and Their Proliferation, Continued
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Upper class bias
Pluralism
Description of lobbyists
Insider and outsider strategies
Political Action Committees
The revolving door to employment with
private industry
PROPERTIES
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Summary
• The evolution of the two-party system and
the form it takes today
• The discernable differences between the
two parties
• Interests groups and why they proliferate
POL110 Week 5 Scenario Script: The Two-Party System
Slide #
Slide 1
Slide 2
Scene/Interaction
Introductory screen, containing
the environment (an outside view
of a government office building)
and a title showing the scenario
topic. There will be a “begin”
button on the screen allowing
students to begin the scenario.
Scene 1
Amanda and Dr. Ryan standing
in Dr. Ryan’s office.
Narration
Dr. Ryan: Hello Amanda. Last week we surveyed
the relationship between the media and public
opinion in American politics.
This week we are moving on to the two-party
system present in the United States. We will
complete an analysis of parties and show how
interest groups affect their behavior.
What do you think about this issue, Amanda?
Amanda: Well…I believe it’s important to
emphasize that political parties are far from united
on their platforms and ideologies.
Both the Republicans and Democrats have wings, or
factions, that are in total disagreement with the main
party functionaries.
And they cause no end of trouble when votes come
to the floor of the House and Senate.
Dr. Ryan: Excellent! That being said, what are
some examples of this?
Amanda: Republicans are the more conservative of
the two parties because they represent many large
scale corporations who don’t like to see the status
quo change too quickly.
But they have in their ranks so-called tea party
members who are ultra conservative. They also
have liberals who are at the other end of the political
spectrum. These people do want changes made, and
rather quickly.
Slide 3
Dr. Ryan: And, of course, Democrats have the
same problems.
Amanda: Of course. They are the more liberal of
the two parties because they represent a wider array
of minority groups and endorse more public
spending measures.
But they have conservatives from southern states,
and a group known as Blue Dogs who are fiscal
conservatives and who try to bridge the differences
between the conservative and liberal wings of the
party.
Imagine being a House whip and trying to reconcile
all of these different views sometime!
Dr. Ryan: That’s a good point, Amanda!
Two features that distinguish us from European
political parties are our decentralization and political
culture. That is, Americans don’t really join parties
except to vote.
But what we do have that Europeans do not is a very
strong influence exerted by lobbyists. Before we get
into that, however, what do you know about the
national party structure as it exists today?
Amanda: Let me see…from what I know, both
parties have national and congressional committees
that help members run for office. They are funded
by federal and soft money. Am I correct?
Dr. Ryan: Yes, yes! Keep going you’re on the right
track.
Amanda: Ok, well, the first type regulates how
much any one person can donate to an individual
candidate. But the second type is not regulated by
the government and can be spent by the committees
for the party in general.
Dr. Ryan: It sounds like a fine line, and it is. We’ll
talk more about campaign finance reform next week,
but political parties must be very careful about how
they spend donations so that they abide by the law.
Slide 4
Amanda: This issue of financing leads me to
another matter I’ve been wondering about. Why do
we have only the two-party system in America?
Dr. Ryan: Good question. We used to have
something called machine politics, where parties
recruited members with the promise of jobs.
However, they were broken early in the twentieth
century by progressives like Teddy Roosevelt.
We still have ideological parties like the Greens and
Communists which campaign on very specific
issues, but they’re insignificant at the national level.
Amanda: So they’re not large enough to qualify for
government funding, is that right?
Dr. Ryan: Exactly! You have to be large enough to
rate government financial campaign funding and
only the Republicans and Democrats are
traditionally that strong.
Third parties historically have not fared well in the
U.S. because these two traditional parties seem to
capture the country’s political preferences well
enough. Hence, the two-party system.
Amanda: I guess it’s a good thing to keep in mind.
Most Americans are moderates and so the
Republican and Democratic parties are the two that
are best equipped to embrace the ideological middle,
aren’t they?
Dr. Ryan: That’s a very good way of phrasing it,
Amanda. So now let’s look at this two party system
of ours in more detail. Do you know how our
electoral system is set up?
Amanda: Not being a parliamentary government,
the voters select two senators from every state and
congressmen on the basis of the state’s population.
Every election in the country, whether it’s local,
state or national, is based on this same plurality
system where the winner is the one who receives the
most votes.
It gets a little quirky with presidential elections
because of the electoral college, but this is the
general principle.
Slide 5
Dr. Ryan: But do you think these elected officials
in Congress really represent the public’s interests?
Amanda: Good question, Dr. Ryan. Theoretically,
they are supposed to. But sometimes they vote based
on their conscience and it does not always
necessarily mesh with that of their constituents.
Then it’s up to them to explain their vote…and it’s
not always well received in local town hall meetings
when they return to their states.
Dr. Ryan: Right! And at the presidential level,
candidates are selected on the basis of a series of
primaries and caucuses that are held in various
states.
The one who wins the most is the nominee. At
some national conventions in the past, however,
there were serious disputes over who would be
nominated.
This is because states’ delegates
disagreed with one another, but eventually they
settled their differences and one candidate emerged
as the party nominee.
Amanda: But after all of that, the burning question I
have is, do the two major parties really differ?
Dr. Ryan: On many domestic issues like abortion,
gun control, same-sex marriage, immigration, tax
reform, deficit spending, social entitlements and
health care, the answer is a resounding Yes.
But on other matters like national defense and
foreign policy, they are somewhat closer together.
They will say they aren’t, but in practice they end up
differing very little.
Slide 6
Scene 2:
Amanda and Dr. Ryan do a
visual tour of a museum or
historical exhibit in Capitol Hill
that showcases the material that
is covered. This is sort of a
visual tour of Washington D.C.
as well as a visual component to
the conversation.
Dr. Ryan: Now, let’s examine the real power
behind the American political process. This is the
interest group.
In this country there is an interest group for almost
every imaginable policy. The largest represent
corporations and the smallest, quite naturally,
represent the poor.
Amanda: Is that because corporations have the
most money and the poor are unable to fund large
interest groups?
Dr. Ryan: Yes, Amanda, that’s the way the world
works, I’m afraid.
But we need to distinguish between institutional
and membership interest groups. The first is the
classic organization that works on behalf of other
organizations. Whereas the second is composed
largely of individuals who come together to engage
in civic or political action.
We’ll be referring to the first group because these
organizations influence so much of the agendas that
go before legislators.
Amanda: This has to be costly, so where does all of
their funding come from?
Dr. Ryan: Fundraising is a full-time job for these
groups, so they solicit foundations, the federal
government, and private individuals through direct
mail campaigns.
We should note here that there is an inherent bias in this
process because the poor, understandably, don’t
contribute much. Most of the activity of these interest
groups is done on behalf of upper class interests.
Slide 7
Scene 3
Amanda and Dr. Ryan do a
visual tour of a museum or
historical exhibit in Capitol Hill
that showcases the material that
is covered. This is sort of a
visual tour of Washington D.C.
as well as a visual component to
the conversation.
Amanda: So what exactly do interest groups do
then?
Dr. Ryan: Well, by law, their activities must be
completely transparent, so they file a lot of reports.
But one of their primary functions is to disseminate
information that is topical, accurate, and what’s at
stake in a vote.
Congressional representatives need all of this in
order to make informed decisions, and interest
groups get it to them almost instantaneously. It’s
really quite impressive how well organized these
groups are.
Amanda: And, of course, you have those four
thousand political action committees, or PACs.
Dr. Ryan: Right. What would we do without them
and all the money they raise? In 2008 alone, they
collected and gave over four hundred million dollars
to federal candidates.
Amanda: The beauty of it is that anyone can begin
a PAC. Corporations, labor unions, and ideological
groups across the political spectrum can organize
one to get their voices heard…depending, of course,
on how much money they can raise.
Slide 8
Scene 4
Amanda and Dr. Ryan do a
visual tour of a museum or
historical exhibit in Capitol Hill
that showcases the material that
is covered. This is sort of a
visual tour of Washington D.C.
as well as a visual component to
the conversation.
Dr. Ryan: And that’s not the only influence they
have. There’s such a thing as a revolving door. This
is where interest groups hold out the prospect of
lucrative jobs for retiring politicians.
Many people correctly think that this may well
influence their votes on certain legislation. It’s
unethical but almost impossible to prove.
Amanda: It sounds like there is an enormous
amount of money at stake here, as well as other nontangible issues that need to be regulated.
So who’s responsible for all of this?
Dr. Ryan: The federal government, of course.
Since 1995, the registration and disclosure
requirements have been severely tightened
governing the activities of these groups.
This means that a lobbyist now is defined as anyone
who spends at least twenty percent of his time
lobbying or earns more than five thousand dollars
doing this. It could also be a corporation that spends
more than twenty thousand dollars in a six-month
period on their lobbying staffs.
Amanda: But there are exceptions?
Dr. Ryan: Yes, a few. Grass-roots organizations
are exempted, but that’s about it. Even tax-exempt,
non-profit organizations like the AARP are
forbidden from receiving federal grants.
But well before this, to receive and retain a taxexempt classification, an organization had to show
that it did not devote a substantial part of its
activities towards influencing legislation.
Amanda: But who determines what the meaning of
extensive is?
Dr. Ryan: That’s the question. It’s never been
clearly defined by the law, but in 1968, the IRS
revoked the tax-exempt status of the Sierra Club.
This was because it was found to have lobbied
Congress so extensively.
Slide 9
Scene 5
Dr. Ryan: So that takes us to the end of our
examination of the relationship between political
parties and interest groups, and next week we can
look forward to a closely related topic in campaigns
and elections. And now, I have a couple of
questions for you on this week’s material?
Amanda: Sure!
Slide 10
Check Your Understanding
Which of the following would
best describe the American
political party system?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
highly centralized
parliamentary
X decentralized
multi-party
run by political machines
Answer:
C.
The federal
government has made sure that
parties are so closely regulated at
the local, state and national levels
that it even determines how
parties’ candidates are chosen.
Of the following, which group is
least likely to define the average
interest group in American
politics?
A. it can represent for-profit
organizations
B. X it often represents the
interests of the poor
C. it
can
represent
institutional organizations
D. it may be funded by a
large foundation
E. it is not regulated by the
government
Answer B. Without money, you
have no influence and influence
is power.
Slide 11
Scene 6
Dr. Ryan: Good job. In the interim, keep up with
your reading and I will see you again next week.
We’ve covered a lot of important topics about the
two-party system, including a look at the national
party structure and the influence of interest groups.
Make sure to participate in this week’s discussions
on the two-party system.
I’m very impressed with your progress, Amanda.
Take care for now, and I’ll talk to you again later.