Sophia Fish

American Government
How do the goals and tactics of political parties, vis--vis elections and campaigns, advantage
or disadvantage Democratic Theory and Pluralism?

Political parties are an important part of the nations government. Political parties operate in
the local state level in municipal and county elections, in the state level in state-wide
elections for governors, attorney generals etc. and in the national level in Congress and
Presidential elections. The main function of a political party is to choose candidates for public
offices within the party and try to get them elected during the elections. All political parties
share the same goal, and that is to win the elections however different political parties could
have different means and tactics to achieve this goal. The actions political parties take in
relation to their campaigns and elections favor and harm democratic theory and pluralism.
Democratic theory allows every member of the voting public to participate in government by
direct or representative vote. The representative vote is the more common form of democratic
theory where members of the public who meet the voting requirements elect officials into
offices to serve in the government on behalf of the people. An example of this is the members
of Congress being elected by the public to represent their interests.
Pluralism is the theory that a multitude of groups, not the people as a whole, govern the
United States. These organizations, which include among others unions, trade and
professional associations, environmentalists, civil rights activists, business and financial
lobbies, and formal and informal coalitions of like-minded citizens, influence the making and
administration of laws and policy. Since the participants in this process constitute only a tiny
fraction of the populace, the public acts mainly as bystanders. (Reynolds, 1996) This means it
is almost impossible for every issue being decided in the country to be put up to a vote. Apart
from it being impossible considering the cost and the time involved to make such a thing
happen, many citizens do not have enough knowledge about the things going on in the
country. Direct democracy cannot work in the United States. Politicians win offices by
plurality i.e. having more votes than the opponents. The Pluralists believe that the major

controversies and policies are decided not by the public but by competition among groups
since the public cannot decide through elections.
One way in which political party campaigns advantages democratic theory and pluralism is
by educating the electorate. Campaigns are organized efforts used to influence the decision
making process of the voting public ahead of elections. Campaigns serve as the linkage
between the government and the people under it. It is the constitutionally allowed method for
communication with the government. During campaigns, all parties involved in the election
will have a chance to educate the masses on their goals and objectives should they be elected
into office. This helps in the flow of political information.
Elections also favor democratic theory and pluralism by promoting political equality. Jarrett
B. Wollstein defines political equality as the equality of each citizen's individual rights and
liberty. America being a politically equal society means the citizens who are unequal socially
or financially have the same voting rights and must receive equitable treatment under the law.
Political socialization is another benefit of campaigns and elections. Through campaigns and
elections, the masses form their ideas about politics and acquire political values which will
influence how they vote in future elections.
A negative effect of campaigns is that most times, the voters will vote for a candidate without
necessarily knowing his politics or what he wants to do but because of the way the candidate
has been packaged and sold during the campaigns. They can deceive the voters very easily
to get their votes.
Political parties also divide the government and this could be an issue sometimes. Because
there are factions in the government, it can be hard for some things to get done. An example
of this now is the 2016 budget and how the Republicans and Democrats disagree on where

cuts on government spending should be made. Sometimes the two party system works against
the interest of the American people when members of political parties in government put the
interest of their party above that of the nation.

REFERENCES
Ait.org.tw,. What Is Democracy? - Politics, Economics, &Pluralism. Retrieved 31 March
2015, from http://www.ait.org.tw/infousa/zhtw/docs/whatsdem/whatdm8.htm
Udel.edu,.

Pluraism.

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2015,

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