http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/choice2008/Political PartiesPolitical Parties are an organized group of people who seek to control a government. Indemocratic countries, political parties compete against one another in elections to keep or gain control of a government. They are active at all levels of government, local, state andfederal.Political Parties are necessary to democratic government, especially representativedemocracies. A representative democracy is when people elect representatives to act astheir agents in making and enforcing laws. Political Parties help to organize elections andhow to select people who will run for political office (like the senate, the House of Representatives…)Usually a dictatorship will only allow one political party-the one that controls thegovernment and they tightly control who can run for election.Democrat or Republican?America, in general, has two political parties that control politics. There are other parties but they rarely have an impact on the government in a direct way. One of the other partiesis the GREEN party and Ralph Nader runs as their choice for President.Below are a two sets of descriptions. Entirely on your own with no help from friends pick which column you agree with.Choice A Choice B-support the farmers of Americawhich includes passing legislation that benefits them-support the owners of business andindustry (think about what you will wantwhen you grow up)-government should be “smaller”, it shouldnot interfere in a citizens life-less spending-less taxes- importance of strong military--support of immigrants and AfricanAmericans-historically--government needs to provide for the people, take care of them--“big” government, with lots of federal powers--government should run things not theindividual--more spending--more taxes--diplomacy

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