Similarities Between Political Parties And Interest Groups

American Democracy: Political Parties and Interest Groups

Since the nation’s founding, political parties have been an integral element of American politics, helping to shape and reflect the country as it is now in a number of ways. Political parties play different responsibilities in democratic governance, despite certain similarities to interest groups. To comprehend the nature of democratic politics in the United States, it is crucial to comprehend these two crucial components, their historical relevance, the variations between these two sorts of organizations, and their overall effects. By exploring their contributions, it will ultimately help understand American democracy overall.

Political parties are established organizations that

Party organizations, also known as committees, are defined as a political party’s institutional structure, including aspects such as the leadership, members of the organization and election committees (Ginsberg 588). Members of these committees are generally chosen at business meetings for the local party or during primary elections. There are various levels of committees given that there are committees on every level of government, but national committees are generally more known and are in charge of daily tasks of parties. More specifically, the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee run their respective political parties in the United States. Some responsibilities that are given to members in these committees is to try to minimize any disputes and conflicts that may arise within the party. Oftentimes, these arguments are sparked by rules of the party. For example, the Republican National Committee had some controversy regarding the nomination of Trump to the party and their decision to air an excessive amount of televised presidential debates in 2016, which is believed to enhance his chances of being nominated (Ginsberg 589). Another responsibility given to national committees is upkeep of their image to the media. By ensuring that their online presence is in general positive light, it will increase the number of supporters for the party and also coincides with the next

First off, interest groups are defined to be an organization of people that collectively try to have some say on government policies and programs for the chances of their perspectives to be recognized and potentially catered to, but not searching for government control as the end goal. Whereas political parties do intend to seek control of the operation of the government through winning elections. Moreover, interest groups tend to represent more limited and economic interests and political parties represent the people (Ginsberg 629). Generally, the organization of political parties and interest groups are completely different. With political parties having different party systems and organizations as previously mentioned, interest groups have different types of groups. For example, there are corporate groups, trade associations, labor groups, professional associations, and public interest groups which all cater to different aspects of American society. Likewise, there are certain benefits that one can obtain from joining a group, such as receiving newsletters, being gifted special goods, networking opportunities, and in general serving a cause that one supports (Mira, Lecture). Another key difference between political parties