Welcome to On the Campaign Trail. I'm Bill Nigut from Georgia public Broadcasting.
Throughout 2016 we're going to be bringing you occasional reports
to help you better understand this extraordinary election that's unfolding
right before our very eyes.
Today we want to talk about political parties. What are they? What's their function?
So let's get right to it.
So what is a political party?
Very basically, it's just a group of people who come together because they share similar political views.
They work to influence government to see their point of view,
and political parties often put forth candidates who share their views, hoping
to get them elected to government to enact their views as policy.
Around the world, there are a number of different kinds of political parties.
Some countries have a single-party system, where there's just one major political party.
Most have a two-party system like the United States, where we have Democrats and Republicans.
Of course, we also have some very minor parties or smaller parties.
Libertarians are one example.
But Republicans and Democrats dominate a two-party system here.
And then there are countries that have multiple parties.
In Israel, for example, there's as many as a dozen or more parties
that all vie for power and government and to elect officials to represent them in their government.
The two major parties in the United States, the Republicans and Democrats,
have some very basic differences.
For the most part, the Republican Party tends to be more conservative.
Republicans favor less government involvement in day-to-day life.
They feel that states and individuals should have the opportunity to control their own destinies.
The Republicans typically don't like a great deal of federal intervention.
Democrats, on the other hand, believe that the federal government particularly has an
important role to play in helping people who need a leg up.
They support, for instance, making sure there are adequate food stamp programs for the poor.
So Republicans favor less government intervention; Democrats tend to believe
that the government has a very active and positive role to play in our welfare
The parties, in this case Republican and Democratic Party, have big roles to play
when it comes to the presidential election we're living through right now.
It's the parties who oversee the primary election process by which a candidate is
selected to be the nominee of that party.
So we're beginning the process right now of holding primaries across the country.
Republican candidates are lining up hoping to win the votes of Republican voters out there.
Democrats doing the same thing on their side.
The parties' job at this point is to be somewhat neutral.
The parties are not supposed to favor one candidate or another during the primary process.
But once the nominee is decided, then the party has a much bigger role.
It helps raise money for the candidate, it helps distribute the
messages that the candidate is sending out in hopes of winning election, and
they also have a big role to play in turning out voters to the polls so that
their candidate gets the support that she or he needs.
So as election 2016 moves forward, you'll be hearing a lot more and seeing a lot more political
party involvement in the election of a president of the United States.