Reflection

In my first blog I analyzed the origin of American democracy. I thought it would be a good way to start the blogs. My goal was analyze different aspects of the government and i believe I have achieved that. Throughout the semester my topics revolved around the three branches of the government. These blogs have me gain an in depth knowledge  about the executive, judiciary and legislative branch and how they function. I believe I have developed a political voice by analyzing different political philosophies. These blogs more and less forced me to research current events and different governmental policies. Truthfully at first I believed the blogs would be a waste of time, but later I realized that these blogs were actually really helpful. Instead of cramming for the tests the day before , I was actually familiarizing myself with the topic in advance. A lot of the topics I covered in my blogs really helped me when it came to the exams and the free responses. At the beginning of the semester my blogs were more about political philosophies of the two main parties. With the election going on, it was the perfect opportunity for me to learn more about their platform and where they stood on certain issues. So every week I analyzed the standpoint of Barack Obama and mitt Romney. Every week I picked a new topic and discussed where they stood. I believe I talked about health care, taxes and other issues. it forced me to research topic that normally I wouldn't have bothered with. After the election was over I focused more on he economic policies on the country like the fiscal cliff and tax increase. I also discussed social policies like gun control and abortion. After looking through all of them I believe my best blog would be my first one: the origin of American democracy. It basically sums up the whole course. If I had chance to do it over, I will try to focus more on one subject instead of discussing bunch of different things. I would have also tried to research more in depth on the topics I wrote about. As a tip for novice bloggers, I would say do not procrastinate with the blogs. Also, I would recommend looking in your textbook for topics. If you can't think of any topic, then just browse through the book. It's a great place to find topics.

Political Parties

Political parties are one of the earliest available and visible institutions in a democracy. A political party is an association of people who come together on a common platform with the objective of contesting elections. A political party has three components-leaders, active members and followers. The main functions of political parties are to contest election, put forward policies and programs, make laws, form a government, perform role of opposition, share public opinion and undertake welfare activities. Political parties are necessary because they lay down foundations of a strong representative democracy. 

Political parties have been a presence in American politics since the nation’s infancy. The federalists and Democratic-Republicans were the first two parties to emerge in the late 1700s. In 1832, the Democratic Party held the first national presidential nomination convention to nominate Andrew Jackson, and the Whig party formed around opposition to the president. The democratic and Whig parties strengthened for several years until the issue of slavery led to the Whig party’s gradual dissolution and replacement by the Republican Party. From 1860 to this day, the same two political parties, Democratic and Republican, have dominated elections in the United States.

The national party organization sits at the top of the party system. A chairperson leads the national party, and every four years the national committee of each party organizes a national convention to nominate a candidate for the presidency. The state and local parties are the heart of political activism, as virtually all government regulation of political parties is left to the states. The state governing body generally called the state central or executive committee supervises the collection of local party organizations. For 200 years, the two party systems have served as the mechanism American society uses to organize and resolve social and political conflict. The two major parties provide vital services to society, include running candidates for office, proposing and formulating policy, organizing government and furthering unity, linkage, and accountability.

Interest Group

Interest Group is defined as "an organized body of individuals who try to influence public policy." This system is designed so that interest groups would be an instrument of public influence on politics to create changes, but would not threaten the government much.
Interest groups play many different roles in the political system, such as representation, participation, education, and program monitoring. Representation is the function that we see most often and the function we automatically think of when we think of interest groups. Participation is another role that interest groups play in our government, which is when they facilitate and encourage the participation of their members in the political process. Interest groups also educate, by trying to inform both public officials and the public at large about matters of importance to them. Lobby groups also keep track of how programs are working in the field and try to persuade government to take action when problems become evident when they monitor programs. The traditional interest groups have been organized around some form of economic cause, be it corporate interests, associates, or unions. The number of business oriented lobbies has grown since the 1960s and continues to grow. 

Interest groups are large numbers of citizens who join together to advance a common interest or goal. They attempt to advance their cause by targeting national level policy making institution. The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is one of the largest and strongest interest groups in the United States. According to its mission statement, it is "a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people age 50 and over ... dedicated to enhancing quality of life for all as we age," which "provides a wide range of unique benefits, special products, and services for our members." They often focus their attention of the legislative body. Congress is easily targeted because they are elected officials who are expected to meet the needs of their constituents. The number of older Americans that participate in elections by voting is much higher than that of any other age group. This makes them a powerful force when dealing with their representatives. They can the threat of the vote when bargaining for their needs and wants most representatives with the desire for reelection would not want to go against the large body of the AARP.

The AARP is a successful interest group because so many elderly receive large amount of discretionary funds. This enables the AARP to develop a powerful political action committee with the strength of a wealthy political action committee. The group can provide monetary support for those who agree to further their cause while at the same time withhold funds from those who do not the power the money is the power to influence.  The AARP can influence congress with its power of the purse. The AARP also has the ability to put a lot of time into their campaigning of congress for their needs. Retired people often have large amounts of free time fuels with this time the members can focus on grassroots campaigning. They can write letters and make phone calls at enormously high rates. In addition to the letters and calls, retired people’s time can also be spent on trips to speak directly with their congressmen and women or their staffs. Through this kind of commitment changes can be made because the message has reached the legislators.

Through high voter turnout, the use of discretionary funds to create political action committees and the use of time for grassroots campaigning of important issues. The AARP has earned the nicknames the “Gray panthers” and become one of the most successful interest group in the U.S. Most legislators would not want to go against their groups objectives if they wanted to remain in office. For these reasons the AARP has been extremely successful in meeting its policy objectives. This can be clearly seen in the recent attention that has been given to social security and health care reform by congress.