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Political Parties Vs Interest Groups Essay

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Political parties and interest groups differ in three main areas: their purpose, their internal issues, and their methods. Political parties can be defined as organized groups of people that seek to influence public policy by getting candidates elected to office. An interest group can be defined as an organized group that tries to influence the government to adopt certain policies. From the initial definitions, there is one obvious difference between the purposes of political parties and interest groups: political parties want their members in office, and interest groups want policies to be implemented. However, there are many small differences between the two. Political parties unite people under their common political ideas. They are meant to pick candidates to run campaigns, educate voters, and …show more content…

Rather than nominate candidates that share their beliefs for governmental positions, interest groups merely try to gain the attention of those already in office. Furthermore, political parties have very broad platforms and opinions that they prioritize. Interest groups usually have one or two stances that they will not concede, like anti-gun laws or pro-life opinions (“The Relationship”). Because of this difference in policies, political parties and interest groups often have sharply contrasting structures. Political parties, with all the topics that they form opinions about, are more flexible. Members do not necessarily have to agree on every single element of the platform, because there are plenty of opportunities to agree with someone on a particular policy. However, membership in interest groups is much more rigid. Because they typically only opine on one or two things, it is extremely uncommon for members to disagree because people with differing beliefs cannot be in the same interest group. As for methodology, political parties

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