Different Roles of Political Parties

Political Science
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Political Science
A political party can be defined as an entity that represents the will of the people in the legislature and develops various checks and balances to ensure that the government operates in an efficient manner. It represents the interests of the electorate and persuades people to elect its candidates to the parliament. There are numerous functions that are served by political parties, with Republicans and the Democrats being the two main parties in the U.S. The first and most important role of political parties is to represent the interests of its constituents (Goel, 2015). The party organization of both Democrats and Republicans has elected officials at national, state, and local levels and their roles are to ensure that the demands of their party electorate are met. This is critical in establishing trust and loyalty among party followers as well as attracting potential members to the party.
The second role is to make policies that will be instrumental in serving the electorate and fulfilling their demands. Policy making is the mandate of the party leaders who are tasked with the role of developing party manifestos that act as the goals and objectives of the party. In the U.S., the Democrats and Republicans have policies which take specific directions when it comes to the fulfillment of national agendas (Maisel, 2016). A candidate can either win or lose a political seat as a result of the policies which he/she articulates on the agenda which he hopes to fulfill when elected to office. For instance, it can be argued that the electorate failed to elect Bill Clinton in 1992 since his ideology or specific policies were less convin...