In this unit, we'll look at how Political Parties in the United States are organized.  One thing that we're going to really focus on is understanding that American political parties aren't really organized nationally.  Yes, there are these entities called the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee, but those are basically umbrella organizations, made up of fifty individual state parties.  How those parties are organized at the state (and local) levels is the main focus here.

Textbook Reading

Chapter 4 - Part 4.H ONLY (might want to re-read from last week)

Instructor Notes

Political Parties - Lecture Notes

Outside Links

Ballot Access Laws (Ballotpedia)

Methods of Nomination (CSG Book of the States - 2019)

How Republicans and Democrats really are different  (Michigan Public Radio podcast - Sept 2016) (no transcript appears to be available)

Tennessee State Rep removed from Democratic Party (Tennessean news - May 2020)

"I'm not a **** socialist": Florida's Democratic intra-party fight (Politico - Nov 2020)

How reporters from the "bottom up" think about the election (Politico - Nov 2020)

How Proportional Representation Works (FairVote)

Unit Assignments

Parties and Elections Quiz (includes questions from previous unit)

Political Party Ballot Access - CS

Campaign Spending - CS