AP Gov

Political parties are a staple in most democracies. The first political party in the United States was the Federalists, a group of people who believed the federal government should have more power. A few years later, an opposition group rose, calling themselves Democratic-Republicans. There were many major ones in the first century of the United States, with another party called the Whigs growing after. Eventually, these parties evolved into the modern-day Democrats and Republicans. Political parties are groups of people trying to pass policies that favor the ideas of the people in those groups. In other words, they try to help people who belong to their specific party. People in these groups vary, but very often different regions of the country all tend to sway further to the left or right as a whole. This is apparent in the recent midterm elections. In the following picture, you can see that in the west, the north, and the northeast tend to lean more blue, or democratic, a

Interest groups are a necessary component of American Democracy. Popular Sovereignty is a primary theme, and a great way to show how you feel on a national level is to join an interest group. An interest group is a group that makes policy related appeals to government. The purpose of this is to represent the views of its members and to push its own agenda. They influence the government by making the actual bills of politicians, calling and making their own wants known, and giving a lot of money to politicians who support said interest groups. Interest groups will also provide valuable information to politicians as the size of an interest group can show what the citizens want. A specific example of an interest group in the United States is the American Civil Liberties Union, or the ACLU. Their goal is to protect the civil liberties of American Citizens, but also immigrants, both illegal and legal. This is a screenshot from their website. The ideological perspective of this organiza