Which organization is responsible for nominating a presidential candidate in the United States?

Political parties are teams of politicians, activists, and voters whose goal is to win control of government. To do so, parties perform essential tasks of recruiting and nominating candidates, garnering the resources needed to run campaigns, and pursuing a policy agenda that can help them appeal to voters. Although Americans tend to be suspicious of “party rule,” the Democratic and Republican parties are essential to the daily operation of government and the conduct of American democracy in elections. This two-party system helps to structure voters’ electoral choice and provide coordination to America’s otherwise divided and separated governing institutions.

1. Why Do Political Parties Form?

What fundamental problems do political parties help politicians and voters overcome?

• Political parties are institutions that seek to control the government through the winning of offices; whereas interest groups are “benefit seekers” looking for policy gains, parties tend to be composed of office seekers.
• Parties organize to facilitate collective action in the electoral process; indeed, the shape of party organization itself reflects this electoral motivation as party organizational units mirror district or geographical units where elections are held. For voters, parties lower information costs by providing a “brand name” that conveys important information about the candidates running under the party label.
• Parties form lasting coalitions within government designed to induce cooperation and to resolve the problems associated with collective choice in the policy-making process.
• Parties also regulate the career advancement of ambitious officeholders and help resolve the potential problems of competition between ambitious party members.

2. What Functions Do Parties Perform?

Once formed, what are the essential functions that political parties perform in American democracy and governance?

• Political parties recruit candidates for the thousands of races at the national, state, and local levels.
• Parties also nominate candidates to be their standard bearers for each race. Although nominations are sometimes made in party conventions, the dominant means of nominating candidates is by primary elections, which can be either closed primaries (that is, restricted only to party members) or open primaries (where voters declare their party affiliation on the day of the primary).
• Parties conduct voter registration drives and mobilization efforts on Election Day in order to counter the free-rider problem and to increase voter participation.
• By promoting party identification in the electorate, parties facilitate mass electoral choice; even when party identification fails to persuade voters, by providing voters with a “brand name” parties lower the information costs potential voters encounter in making electoral choices.
• In addition to their many roles in elections, parties also influence the national government.
• In attempting to make their party a “big tent,” party leaders often advance policies to build coalitions and to broaden the party’s appeal to new constituencies; there is, however, a tension between these coalition-building efforts and the need for the parties to present distinct alternative to voters and to satisfy their most partisan “base” constituencies.
• Congressional organization depends heavily on party; the majority party leads each chamber and dominates the committee system.
• The president is often seen as the leader of his or her party, but some presidents are better, more engaged party leaders than others.

3. Parties and the Electorate

How and how well do political parties organize the electorate? What groups tend to identify with Democrats and Republicans, respectively?

• Political parties are made up of millions of rank-and-file members who develop psychological ties to, or identifications with, their parties. In addition to these rank-and-file identifiers, parties also rely on a particularly committed group of party activists who contribute time, energy, and effort to support the party and its candidates.
• In the United States, a variety of characteristics are associated with party identification. These include race and ethnicity, religion, class, ideology, and region.
• In terms of race and ethnicity, African American voters are overwhelmingly Democratic while Latino voters are more divided (Cuban Americans are generally Republican, for example, whereas Mexican Americans favor Democrats by a small margin).
• There exists a gender gap whereby women are more likely to support Democrats and men are more likely to support Republicans.
• Different religious groups have different party identifications: Jews tend toward Democrats, Protestants are more likely to be Republicans, and Catholics—while traditionally a Democratic constituency—have been moving slightly toward Republicans since the 1970s.
• Although class tends to be muted in American politics, upper-income Americans tend to be Republicans whereas lower-income Americans are more likely to identify with Democrats.
• Ideology and party identification are closely linked, with liberals identifying with the Democrats and conservatives identifying as Republicans.
• The formerly “solid” Democratic South is now becoming solidly Republican, as is much of the West and Southwest; the Democratic base is now in the Northeast; and the Midwest is a more or less evenly divided battleground.
• Age is also associated with partisanship, as individuals older than fifty are more likely to be Democrats while those younger than fifty are fairly evenly divided.

4. Parties as Institutions

How are contemporary political parties organized? What functions do they serve and what services do they offer to candidates?

• Political parties are neither tightly disciplined nor hierarchically organized. Rather, they are extensive networks of individuals that exist at virtually every level of government that are usually organized as committees of active party members.
• The most important party institution at the national level is the national convention, which is responsible for nominating the party’s presidential candidate, establishing the party’s rules, and drafting its platform.
• Each party’s national committee operates between conventions to raise funds, mediate disputes within the party, and enhance the party’s media image.
• The congressional campaign committees raise funds and develop strategies for House and Senate election campaigns.
• State and local party organizations recruit candidates, conduct voter registration drives, and provide financial assistance to candidates.
• Contemporary parties have evolved into “service organizations” in the modern, candidate-centered era; most notably, national parties provide money, resources, and expertise to their candidates who are increasingly independent.

5. Party Systems

What is a “party system”? What have been the major “party systems” throughout American political history? What is the place of third parties in the American party system?

Who is responsible for nominating candidates?

How are presidential candidates nominated quizlet?

Who actually determines the election?