A political party is a political organization that seeks to attain political power within a government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns. Parties often espouse a certain ideology and vision, but may also represent a coalition among disparate interests.

Political scientists have distinguished between five families of political parties. These include elite-based parties, mass-based parties, ethnicity based parties, electoralist parties and movement parties. Each of these types includes different sub-types of political parties. The electoralist party, for example, can be subdivided into three subtypes, the personalistic, the catch-all and the programmatic party. According to this, the Republican Party in the United States is considered an electoralist - programmatic party, while the Democratic Party is seen as an electoralist catch-all party.

 

Principles of American Democracy

12.6 Students evaluate issues regarding campaigns for national, state, and local elective offices.

1. Analyze the origin, development, and role of political parties, noting those occasional periods in which there was only one major party or were more than two major parties.

| Political Parties | Funding | 2 | 3 | 4 |