Political Parties and Pressure Group Politics

Abstract

Political parties and pressure groups are depend ent upon one another. Interest groups find the parties an im portant method of gaining access to those in public authority, and the parties need the support of groups to elect and maintain themselves in power. The loose party structure and the na ture of the federal system foster a chain of continuous re lationships between the two. Interest groups participate in both nonpartisan and partisan primaries and general elections through candidate endorsement, providing campaign funds, and general campaign activity. Interest groups are particularly in terested in programs and seek to influence party platforms and may provide speech materials for candidates. There is some attempt on the part of both to infiltrate each other though rarely has an interest group been able to capture complete control of a party organization. The overlapping memberships help to educate the parties about the interests of the private groups and vice versa, and provide some cross-fertilization of ideas as well as manpower assistance. Political parties have a prime function of accommodating the demands of the private interests into the larger public interests.