Parties and Interest Groups in America Discussion
Please reply to the question and comment constructively on a classmates’ posting.
Question
Q: Parties and Interest Groups
How do political parties differ from interest groups? What is the role (or function) of political parties in the USA, and how does this compare to the role (or function) of interest groups? Get involved with some in depth discussion. Feel free to make comparisons regarding parties in other countries if you have this knowledge.
Here is classmate’s posting from question. Please reply in 1st person point of view.
Classmate’s post
According to Understanding American Politics. “Interest groups are associations of people who hold common views and who work together to influence what government does. Their interest is in a position benefit or advantage that they want to protect and perhaps enlarge interest groups . Theylook out for their members political interests by campaigning for policies that promote their goals and by opposing policies that work against those goals,” (Bresler, Freidrich, et al,p.194, 2020). Political parties can perform important functions that help to bring order to the electorial process and coherence to government. They try to gain public support, help people’s perceptions of politics. They provide cues to citizens as they perceive and try to make sense of the political world around them. They educate citizens about politics and mobilize them into political activity. (Bresler, Freidrich et al. p.208, 2020). Interest groups look to addressing members concerns. They will look to influence those with political power. To achieve political parties aim to fight elections at local and national levels to gain power. They aim to get public votes in media about their proposals and attack those of their opponents persuade supporters to vote.
Work Cited
Bresler, Freidrich et al. “Understanding American Politics.” pp194- 208. 2020.
Brit Politics. “What is the difference betwee Interest Groups and Political Parties ?
Advanced Government Politics.