Political Parties [AP Gov Review, Unit 5 Topic 3 (5.3)]

hey there and welcome back to heimlich's history now we've been going through unit 5 of the ap government curriculum and in this video it's time to talk about political parties so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked linkage style well then let's get to it so in this video we're going to try to do two things describe linkage institutions and explain the function and impact of political parties on the electorate and government so let's begin by talking about linkage institutions a linkage institution is a societal structure that connects people to their government or the political process we often talk about how here in america we have a government by the people and for the people but in case you haven't noticed american citizens aren't jacked into the matrix so that their political preferences are downloaded directly into a giant political mainframe although maybe that would increase voter turnout no it's a terrible idea anyway short of straight download from our brains how do our elected officials know what we want how is it that we communicate with them and tell them pass this law but don't pass that one well the answer is that we need mechanisms between us and our elected officials through which we can communicate with them and those are called linkage institutions these are structures that act as intermediaries between average people like you and me with the policy makers in the federal state and local government now there are four linkage institutions that you need to know political parties interest groups elections and media each of these linkage institutions exist to allow we the people to communicate our preferences to policy makers and since each of those are going to have its own video here in unit 5 i'm only going to focus in this video on political parties as linkage institutions so what is a political party well it's pretty simple a political party is an organization at least partially defined by a certain ideological belief that puts forward candidates for election now in previous videos i covered the two major political parties in america and they're ideological leanings so here i'm just going to summarize the democratic party represents the more liberal ideology while the republican party represents a more conservative ideology but whatever ideology each party holds to the main goal for each party is to put forward candidates who will win elections now parties play a significant role in which candidates run for office and in the drawing of legislative districts which ultimately benefit the candidates of the party and like the truth is anyone could run for office without the backing of a party but as my southern brethren and sister are fond of saying they're usually about as successful as a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest okay so let's talk about what parties actually do one of their first priorities is the mobilization and education of voters the biggest goal any political party has of course is to win elections and that means they have to expend a great deal of energy to get their party members and others who are sympathetic to their platform to the voting booth to this end they can hold voter registration drives and even drive voters to the polls who cannot otherwise drive themselves and they do that by calling emailing testing or showing up at people's doors and encouraging them to vote and educating them on their candidate's desirability during election seasons parties organize huge canvassing campaigns this is when a huge army of party volunteers calls people or shows up at people's homes with the goal of persuading people to vote for their candidate if you've ever seen people with signs in their front yards endorsing a candidate chances are that's a result of party canvassing effort the second thing parties do is write and publish a party platform this is a formal set of principles and policy goals written and endorsed by the party in other words the party platform lists the kind of policies the party will enact if their candidate is elected now if you read the platform of the democratic party you're going to see lots of policies that reflect liberal ideology like universal healthcare rights for marginalized groups and significant environmental regulations if you read the platform for the republican party you're going to see lots of policies that reflect conservative ideology like an america first foreign policy traditional family values and the deregulation of business so the platform is the party essentially saying like if this is the kind of america you want then elect our candidates and we'll make it happen third if parties are gonna win elections and implement their platform then they need candidates who can win and parties expend a great deal of energy finding quality candidates the ideal candidate for any party has a few characteristics first a good candidate is likable like you know nobody wants to elect a turd so this is key and you know likeable is very subjective in 2016 donald trump polarized americans with this brash talk especially around issues that were culturally taboo like immigration and race however there was clearly a large segment of the american population who found those qualities very likable second a good candidate already has a significant following now a good following doesn't always equal the best candidate for example abraham lincoln was relatively unknown when he got the republican nomination and you know i'd say he was a pretty decent president and that leads me to the third qualification for a good candidate namely that they can unite different segments of the party and that is why abraham lincoln ultimately earned the nomination he was able to unite the northern democrats and the remainder of the whig party and several other factions the fourth qualification for a good candidate is ideally money as we'll see later in this unit it's usually a metric buttload of hooch that wins elections not idealism and so a good candidate should be able to raise a bunch of money okay now back to what parties do the fourth thing that parties do is to provide campaign management support for their candidates parties try to get their candidate elected by hosting fundraisers and implementing targeted media strategies that are going to appeal to most voters and the party which does this best usually wins so after all of that explanation hopefully you can see how a political party acts as a linkage institution connecting average people like us to the political process like if you alone wanted to run a political campaign you don't have that kind of money you don't have the army of volunteers you don't have the infrastructure to make that happen but a party does and so if you register with that party or even just align yourself with it then the party links you to the political process okay let me just say one last thing everything i've said so far about the influence of parties has been about the process before and during the election but after a party's candidate is elected the party continues to play a significant role if you remember all the way back to unit two when we talked about congress you'll remember that a politician's party membership determines committee chairs supposing that they're in the majority party and leadership roles in the legislature roles like speaker of the house and senate majority and minority leaders so the point is political parties play a significant role in linking average americans to the political process okay thanks for watching click right here if you want to grab my review packet which is going to help you get an a in your class and a five on your exam in may if this video helps you and you want me to keep making them then by all means subscribe and i shall oblige heimler out

Channel: Heimler's History

Views: 128,726

Keywords:

Id: 3A4oCEDjRtI

Length: 5min 47sec (347 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 19 2021