The Functions of Political Parties

In the current political world, political parties play a crucial role in stipulating the political ideology of the ruling government. The U.S was the first country to develop promising national political parties with a primary goal of transferring power from the executive of one party to another through general elections. Democracy promoted the growth of powerful and well established political parties since the 1830s (Berg, 2007). Political parties bring people together to achieve a common goal, to get control of the government and to come up with policy favorable to their interest and group that support them, political parties persuade people to vote and elect their candidates. A political party is not a government itself and the constitution does not mention them. They are important in many aspects, for instance, they appoint nominees for public positions where they push for their political parties ideologies.

Besides political parties represents the public ideologies and interests in the ruling government through elected leaders. Republican and Democratic constituents give their ideas to their local leaders for representation in the parliament. Elected leaders represent both the parties' ideologies and constituent's interests to the ruling government (Berg, 2007). These leaders can support general and non-specific issues which regard to the minority groups such as farm, and small business people.

Additionally, political parties help to simplify choices. For instance, there are two political parties in the U.S which are Republican and Democrats. The Democrats are known for supporting ideologies that are related to labor-related issues, and support for the minority groups who believe that it is the role of the government to solve existing problems (Berg, 2007). On the other hand, Republicans are known for their support for business ideology, the size of the government and reserved position on social issues.

In sum, political parties assist in the development of policies and regulations. Political parties are not actively involved in the drafting of the policies but they give their opinion on the issues. According to the U.S constitution a political candidate who gathers the majority votes he or she is responsible for drafting policies that support ideologies of his political party. For example, in both 1992 and 1994, Bill Clinton failed to gather a majority votes where he was not responsible to support and ideology (Smith and Greenblatt, 2018).

Just like any other government political parties are also required to win elections in all local and state government. For instance, United States has 89500 local government which directly serves the people's interest and provide for their social amenities like police, education, fire protection, health regulation, and housing among others (Seidel et al., 2014). The local government level elections are nonpartisan. During campaigning period political activists suspend their party afflation to fair and credible elections. The local government draws their powers from the government immediately above them, unlike other governments that draw their powers from the people they serve. Local government is not equal partners in government but they are subordinates to the government that grant them powers. Finally, in the U.S, the local governments are the main forms of government which is mandated to provide essential services to the residents.

The state of New York is a Democratic stronghold and one of the largest in the U.S. These political parties use labor unions and educational politics to promote their ideologies. Also, these political parties have initiatives that promote the development of affordable houses, education institutions and economic development in New York (Smith and Greenblatt, 2018). Finally, the New York Campaign Finance Board gives public matching fund to qualifying candidates hence increases the survival of political parties in the region.

References

Smith, K. B., & Greenbalt, A. H. (2018). Governing States and Localities (6th ed.). Los Angeles, LA: CQ Press.

New York, S. (2017). New York State Constitution - As Revised, Including Amendments Effective January 1, 2015. [S.L.]: Lulu Com.

Seidel, A. J., Franks, M. M., Murphy, G. F., & Wadsworth, S. M. (2014). Bridging the distance: Illustrations of real-time communication of support between partners and deployed members of the National Guard. In Military deployment and its consequences for families (pp. 21-35). Springer, New York, NY.

Berg, B. F. (2007). New York City Politics: Governing Gotham (1st ed.). New jersey, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

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