Social Sciences and History / Unit 9 SSH 0820 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Electorate, Organization, Government: A Party's Three Parts
Captions available
The idea
Parties exist chiefly to elect candidates, so identification is loose and organization bottom-up: precincts and counties register and mobilize; state and national levels elect major candidates and shape ideology. Party-in-the-electorate is the identifying public; party organization the formal structure; party-in-government the elected identifiers who must deliver.
In practice
A political machine trading favors, often jobs, for votes.
Where people slip
Elected officials also worry about reelection.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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