1	Party Functions Organizing the competition The party column ballot-straight ticket The office block ballot-harder to cast a vote for all the candidates Unifying the electorate Translating preferences into policy Providing loyal opposition Help organize government-state and national levels
2	The Nomination of Candidates Legislative caucus In the 1820’s, the mixed caucus Party conventions 1830’s and 1840’s Direct primary election Open Blanket Closed Iowa-caucus, conventions-Conn. and Utah Signatures (Ross Perot in 1992)
3	Party Systems U.S. electoral two-party system versus multiparty parliamentary systems U.S. winner-take-all system versus proportional representation (corresponding to their percentage of the vote) Multiparty systems: Extreme parties Accurately reflect the full range of views Parties can be more doctrinaire
4	Minor Parties Two basic types of minor parties: A. arise around a candidate (T.R.) B. organized around an ideology Drawing attention to controversial issues “Spoilers”
5	Third parties in past presidential elections 1912 Republican Theodore Roosevelt ran as the Bull-Moose Party (Progressive Party) nominee in the 1912 election and won more votes than Republican incumbent William Howard Taft, who became the first (and to date, only) incumbent President seeking reelection to finish third. (Former Presidents Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore both finished third in the 19th century, but neither was the incumbent President at the time.) The split in the Republican vote gave Democrat Woodrow Wilson victory with 42% of the popular vote, but 435 electoral votes. Socialist Party candidate Eugene Debs won 6% of the vote
6	Third parties in past presidential elections 1948 Strom Thurmond ran on the segregationist Dixiecrat Party ticket in the 1948 election, splitting the Democratic vote and winning 39 votes in the electoral college from Southern states. Former Vice President and Cabinet Member Henry Wallace also sought Democratic votes by running for the Progressive Party and receiving 2.4% of the popular vote, but no votes in the electoral college. Despite both challenges Democratic incumbent Truman still defeated Republican Dewey in what was widely regarded at the time as an upset.
7	Third parties in past presidential elections 1968 Former Democratic Governor of Alabama George Wallace of the American Independent Party ran in the 1968 election. Wallace won 13% of the popular vote, receiving 46 electoral votes in the South and many votes in the North. Republican Richard Nixon won the election with 43% of the popular vote and 301 electoral votes.
8	Third parties in past presidential elections 1992 Ross Perot, an independent, won almost 19% of the popular vote (but no electoral votes). In 1992 some political observers attributed Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton's defeat of incumbent Republican President George H. Bush to Ross Perot's good showing. Others cite evidence that Clinton would still have won in a direct race with Bush.
9	Third parties in past presidential elections 2000 In the 2000 Presidential election, George W. Bush won the deciding state of Florida by fewer than 600 votes. Some Democrats accused Green Party candidate Ralph Nader of having cost them the election.
10	Evolution of American Party Systems History of the development of political parties in American politics. Turning points that define the agenda of politics and the alignment of voters within parties during periods of historic change 1. Intense electoral involvement 2. Disruptions of traditional voting patterns 3. Changes in the relations of power within the community 4.The formation of new and durable electoral groups Four realigning elections 1824: Andrew Jackson and the Democrats 1860: The Civil War and the rise of the Republicans 1896: Party realignment 1932: Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal Alignment Since 1953-Divided government
11	Realignment Five elections as realigning: 1800, when Thomas Jefferson’s victory all but finished off the Federalist Party and reoriented power from the North to the agrarian South 1828, when Andrew Jackson’s victory gave rise to the modern two-party system and two decades of Jacksonian influence 1860, when Abraham Lincolns’ election marked the ascendance of the Republican Party and of the secessionist impulse that led to the Civil War
12	Realignment 1896, when the effects of industrialization affirmed an increasingly urban political order that brought William McKinley to power 1932, Roosevelt's election during the Great Depression. The New Deal and three decades of Democratic dominance.
13	Parties in Government In in the legislative branch In the executive branch In the judicial branch State and local level
14	Parties in the Electorate Party registration Party activists
15	Important Minor Parties Anti-Mason Party American (Know-Nothing Party) Democratic (Secessionist) Constitutional Union People’s (Populist) Bull Moose Socialist Progressive States’ Rights (Dixiecrat) Progressive American Independent National Unity United We Stand Reform Green