How Do Political Parties Affect Voters - Essay Example

 How do political parties affect voters? There is a huge competition among various political parties. Voter education is necessary, as it has nothing to do with parties in politics. Individuals or groups of individuals learn a lot about elections and democracy from their government interactions and experiences in politics. Parties usually have a selfish interest in reaching out to voters. They assume a cost-effective conduit to ensure voters get the required information needed to exercise their vote. Political parties, campaign officers, supporters and the general staff are all potential educators. (Duignan, 2013). Identification of parties is a concept where an individual joins and supports a political party. Because joining parties varies from one person to another. It might be from family influence, for example parents, influence by religion or unions. Usually, voting follows an individual’s party ID. The Electoral College was greatly affected by the rise of parties in politics through causing a great shift toward the outcome of winner-take-all of the general vote. Before the entrenching of systems of the political party, electors from particular states cast different votes for the presidential candidates. By 1830s, the rise of the parties led them to begin assigning state electoral votes to one candidate during the election. Most people would agree that political parties sway the voter with the false promises they make to the voters, advertisements and ways they use to make their opponents look dirty. All these tactics are false representations that the voter falls for, from time to time, and sways their judgment from a rational view of the political parties. (Duignan, 2013). A political party is an organization that allows people who are like-minded to work together in promoting particular ideas to achieve particular goals. The collaboration and co-operation of people with varying skill, views, experiences and knowledge within a political party are the main cause for the party to create policies across a variety of concerns required by the national interest. According to Houghton Committee, 1976, a political party serves as an aggregate for many diverse interests in the society forming them into a reasonable and clear political program. They make electoral choices simpler for citizens and facilitate the government by providing coherence to parties in the parliament. They perform a selection of candidates to the parliament and other bodies of the government and enable citizens participate in processes of policy-making. Finally, political parties help provide a broad education on politics. Political parties are like brands associated with particular ideas, values or actions the public should know. (Houghton, 1974) Political parties seek to appeal to a variety of voters to act as counterweight for their special groups of interests that could otherwise manipulate the state to benefit on their own. Parties help ordinary citizens on the side that is losing in the elections and debates on policy accept a graceful defeat. It is so they can encourage the citizens to understand that the party has both chances of winning or losing. As a result, this action keeps politics from being violent. The United States constitution, transcribed in 1787, a time when the founding fathers thought political parties as “factions” that would act for their selfish interests and not for the public good. The founders assumed political party absence during presidential elections. The Electoral College was established by the constitution calling for small numbers of electors to meet and deliberate the best presidential choice. George Washington won the majority of electoral votes in 1788 making the country’s very first president. John Adams, earning the second highest votes, elected vice president of the United States. George Washington then appointed Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson to his cabinet as state treasurer and state secretary respectively. Hamilton had a vision where America would invite foreign investors to help promote the economy but Jefferson disagreed. The disagreement was so intense that Jefferson left the cabinet to join James Madison and started their own party within the congress that opposed the Federalists party. The federalists referred to the opposing party as the Democratic - Republican Party. George Washington did not run for the office again after his second term in office and feared the hatred between the Federalists and the Republicans would divide the country. On the elections of 1796, John Adams, Federalists presidential candidate and Thomas Jefferson of the Republican Party did not participate in the campaigns. Their supporters campaigned for them. Thomas Jefferson won the elections. A year before the Civil war, Whigs and Democrats won the elections establishing a two-party system in politics in the United States of America. An alternative hypothesis can be extremism. It is a proposition where the lack of a frame that is rich for referring to predispositions of the working class moves toward authoritarianism. It does not mean the lower strata will be an authoritarian, just that they choose an option with the least complex. Therefore, extremism situations stand for the most complex alternative making the lower class against it. Below is table of turn out of voters from the year 1948 to 2008. The table shows the number of people who voted from those who did not. The statistics proved that many of them were unregistered to vote, sick or did not have the time to go out and vote. 48 58 68 78 88 98 08 Did not vote 36 42 24 45 30 48 22 Voted 64 58 76 55 70 52 78 N 660 1806 1391 2292 1773 1278 2113 In 2008, people were asked about the elections to determine how often people voted. The results remained the same, people did not vote because they were unregistered, sick or had no time. On the day of the elections, something just came up that caused people not to vote. Sometimes, people who vote or planned to would usually forget an unusual thing occurred on Election Day that ceased them from voting. 52 68 78 88 98 08 No 73 83 67 79 71 55 Yes 27 33 21 29 19 45 N 1708 1346 2291 1774 1280 2111 The table above shows how people influence each other during elections. The influence can be through family, religion or peers. Overall, the influence causes people to change their votes and vote for the most popular candidate in their circles. For many years, opinion polls have been maintained through various forms of telecommunication or from contact one person to another. The variable techniques and methods are accepted in many areas. Verbal ballots and types of opinion polls that are prepared can be efficiently conducted and contrasted with other surveys. Each election for offices in the public has the mass media reminding us that elections can be very highly charged representing symbols of democracy rituals. The components of the procedures are important to our institutions for politics. The two election aspects, procedural and symbolic, serve as critical functions at different levels of the system of politics. Barriers that discourage people from voting are the low probability of a few voters deciding elections are not a factor to consider wasting their time. Costs of information and high costs of a transaction also discourage voters. Information costs are costs acquired and information processed, here, it is the political information required for use during voting and other types of participation in the political aspect. Transaction costs denote costs made by voters at the market place. Work Cited Duignan Brian (2013). Political parties, interest groups, and elections Houghton Douglas (1974). Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the pay of Non-University Teachers. Read More