Unit 4: The American Party System
Unit Overview:
This unit describes the American Party system and voting process. Why do we have political parties in the US? The first lesson takes us through the origin of political parties, and describes the two-party system that is prevalent in most English-speaking democracies. Subsequent lessons describe the history of American political parties and how the party system works. The final lessons in this unit focus on the process of voting itself. The essay for this unit is about how the American party system allows the voice of American citizens to be heard: as you read through each of these lessons, ask yourself the question presented above and ask yourself how our party system helps our voice to be heard. We didn't have to form parties in America, but we did and there are good reasons for this.
Unit Essay: Political Parties
Political Parties
The subject of this unit is the American Party system, and in these lessons you learned about how political parties work in our nation. One of the primary concepts embodied in the Constitution is the idea of pluralism, or a system that encourages many voices and viewpoints that ultimately check and balance each other. The American party system is one of the main vehicles for pluralism, and people join political parties so their voices may be heard. Consider this idea and write a detailed essay of 600 or more words describing how political parties work in our system to allow the peoples' voices to be heard. In your essay, make sure to describe America's 2-party system, party platforms, and party primaries and/or conventions.
Helpful links:
Key Terms:
For this project you must define the terms listed below and explain each term's significance to the unit/era being studied. Your definition should be 2-3 sentences long and may be copied and pasted from a source like Wikipedia, but the significance of the term must be in your own words and based on your own understanding. To fill out a term's significance, ask yourself, "Why is this item included in my study of this unit? Why is this term in a history book?" The answer to this question is your term's significance.
Unit 4 Key Terms:
partisan politics
Two-Party System
political platform
party national committee
Federalist/Anti-federalists
Australian ballot
short ballot
office block arrangement
split ticket vote
constituency
representative democracy
loose/strict constructionism
Era of Good Feelings
Democrat Republic Party
Whig Party
Jacksonian Democracy
Republican Party
Third party (US)
Gerrymandering
National (party) Conventions
Below is an example of a key term done with the proper format:
William the Conqueror: William I (c. 1028[2] – 9 September 1087), also known as William the Conqueror (Guillaume le Conquérant), was the first Norman King of England from Christmas 1066 until his death. He was also Duke of Normandy from 3 July 1035 until his death, under the name William II. Before his conquest of England, he was known as William the Bastard because of the illegitimacy of his birth.To press his claim to the English crown, William invaded England in 1066, leading an army of Normans, Bretons, Flemings, and Frenchmen (from Paris andÎle-de-France) to victory over the English forces of King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest.[3] (I copied and pasted this definition from Wikipedia)
Significance: William the Conqueror is significant because his conquest of England created the first nation state in Europe. His rearrangement of English feudal territories to give himself dramatically more power than the the barons and nobles around him caused him to be the most powerful monarch in Europe and eventually led to the rise of other nation states over the next few centuries. (These are my words based on my knowledge of English and European history.)