5.3 Political Parties

A linkage institution is a channel through which people's concerns reach government. Without them, individual citizens would struggle to influence policy in a large country.

The four main linkage institutions are political parties (this topic), interest groups (5.6), elections (5.8 and 5.9) and the media (5.12).

A political party is an organization of people with broadly similar views who work to win elections and control government so they can put their ideas into policy. Unlike interest groups, which try to influence whoever holds office, parties run their own candidates and want to be the ones holding office.

Political scientists often describe three parts of a party:

• Party in the electorate: the voters who identify with the party.
• Party as organization: the national committees, state and local party organizations, staff and activists who raise money, recruit candidates and run the party's operations.
• Party in government: the officials elected under the party's label, who organize to pass its agenda.

Party organizations are decentralized. The national committees, the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee, run the national conventions, raise money and coordinate strategy, but state and local parties have their own leaders and rules, and they often run their own primaries and campaigns. Party identification, a voter's sense of belonging to a party, is what ties the party in the electorate to the other two parts.

• Mobilize voters: register supporters, run get-out-the-vote drives and remind people to vote.
• Educate voters: explain issues and give voters a shortcut. Knowing a candidate's party tells you a lot about their likely positions.
• Create platforms: adopt a statement of principles and goals at each national convention (4.7).
• Recruit candidates: find and encourage people to run, especially for competitive seats.
• Run campaigns: provide money, data, staff and advertising for their candidates.
• Organize government: in Congress, the majority party picks the Speaker, controls committee chairs and sets the agenda. Party leaders and whips coordinate votes (2.2).
• Act as a check: the party out of power criticizes the governing party and offers voters an alternative.

Parties simplify choices for voters, help officials from different branches and levels of government work together, and make government more accountable, because voters can reward or punish a party as a team. Critics argue parties can also deepen division and put party loyalty ahead of compromise. The founders were wary of parties (George Washington warned against them in his Farewell Address), yet parties formed within the first decade of the new government.