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The two major parties are often described as thought they are highly organized, close-knit, well-disciplined groups. However, bot ae highly decentralized, fragmented, disjointed, and often beset by factions and internal squabbling.

Each of the State party organizations is only loosely tied to the party's national structure. Local parties, also, are often quite independent of their parent State organizations.

The president's party is usually more solidly united and more cohesively organized than the opposing party. The President is automatically the party leader, and he asserts that leadership with such tools as his acces to the media, and his power to make appointments to federal office and to dispense other favors. On the other hand, the other party has n one in an even faintly comparable position.

The structure of both major parties at the national level has four basic elements

1. The National Convention, often described as the party's national voice, meets in the summer of every presidential election year to pick the party's presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

2. The National Committee, between conventions, the party's affairs are handled by the national committee and by the national chairperson. Each party's national committee is composed of a committeeman and a committeewoman from each State and several of the territories.

3. The National Chairperson in each party is the leader of the national committee. he or she is chosen to a four-year term by the national committee. The national chairperson directs the work of the party's headquarters and its small staff in Washington.

4. The Congressional Campaign Committees work to reelect the incumbents and to make sure that seats given up by retiring party members remain in the party. In both parties and in both houses, the members of these campaign committees are chosen by their colleagues.