Once again, this is Kenneth Janda, primary author of Chapter 8, "Political Parties." Americans have a love-hate relationship with political parties, and young Americans are more likely to distrust parties than to value them for their contributions to democratic government. I confess that I didn't like political parties much when I began college, but I also confess that I didn't know much about them. Over the years, the study of political parties in the U.S. and abroad has become the major focus of my scholarly research.

The chapter begins by defining the term, "political party." You should know how a party differs from an interest group. You should also study the four functions that parties perform for a political system and ask yourself the question, "If parties didn't perform these functions, what institution would? What institution could?

About 10 pages review the history of U.S. party politics. There's a lot of detail in these pages. You should at least develop a general understanding of the "preparty period" in our history, and of the "first party system" (who opposed whom?), and the "second party system" (what parties replaced those in the first system)? I assume you know that the current party system (the third since the Civil War) consists of the Democrats and Republicans.

The Democrats and Republicans have had their ups and downs over the 150 years since the Civil War. The text describes four different eras of party ascendancy or balance. Learn these periods of party fortunes.

The United States has the oldest and best-defined two-party system of all the nations in the world. Minor parties have played a relatively small role in politics throughout our history, but they occasionally have had a real impact. Get a handle on the different types of minor parties that have appeared in our history, and assess the status of minor parties today.

People often ask why the U.S. has had a two-party system for so long--and whether it seems destined to have one in the future. We cite several factors to explain the existence and persistence of two-party politics. Because the two-party system is such an important fact of American politics, you should be able to explain why it developed and continues.

Many people, and particularly many students, think that there is little policy difference between the Democratic and Republican parties. Evidence presented in this chapter indicates that there are huge ideological and issue differences between the parties. Study and evaluate that evidence. Also look at the organizational differences between the Republican and Democratic national party organizations.

The chapter concludes by outlining what's called the model of "responsible party government." Learn the elements of that model and ask yourself whether that is a good model for democratic government. It will re-appear at the end of the next chapter on "Nominations, Elections, and Campaigns."