Your response for this assignment should be at least 500 words long.Read the short article regarding the value of Voter ID laws and generate a brief response to the reading. The essay should provide a

I What Are Political Parties? A. Political parties are generally defined as organizations that seek to control government by recruiting, nominating, and electing their members to public office. II Party Systems Interpretation of American History A. American political history can be viewed as a succession of electoral eras often referred to as party systems. 1. Within each era elections are relatively similar - with certain social and economic groups consistently supporting one party or another. 2. The eras themselves are separated by one or more critical or realigning elections that alter the existing electoral alignment, often in response to some crisis. A. Critical elections mark the emergence of a new, lasting alignment of partisan support within the electorate. B. Critical elections are characterized by an increase in political participation, large blocks of voters switching party affiliation, and are generally preceded by the arrival of a third party. C. Historians and political scientists have come to use the critical realignment dates of 1828, 1860, 1896, and 1932 as landmarks in American history; marking the destruction of one major party system and the creation of another. III Six Party Systems in American History A. The First Party System - Federalists vs. Democratic -Republicans (1796 -1824) 1. The first party system was basically between the Federalists (mostly those located in New England) who supported commercial interests and favore d an expansive national government and the Democratic -Republicans (mostly located in the South and West) who advocated agricultural interests. 2. The Federalist Party gradually disappeared tainted by its aristocratic tendencies and pro -British sympathi es during the War of 1812. B. The Second Party System - Democrats vs. Whigs (1828 -1856) 1. The arrival of the Whigs. The Democrats, under Andrew Jackson, emphasize the common person and popular participation. In fact, turnout triples as the D emocrats pushed to overturn property qualifications. 2. In contrast with the first party system, these parties were well organized, with sharply contrasting programs tied to a highly partisan electorate. C. The Third Party System - Democrats vs. R epublicans (1860 - 1892) 1. By 1860, the Whigs had disappeared and the Republican party had emerged. They were largely composed of abolitionists and Northern Democrats who left the party to oppose slavery. 2. Lincoln won the vote with almost no su pport from the South, marking the beginning of regional voting. 3. Once the Civil War was over, the Republicans and Democrats found themselves roughly balanced in national politics. Democrats were primarily a white Southern party, with substantial sup port from Catholics and the working class. Republicans became a party of business, the middle class, and newly enfranchised African Americans. D. The Fourth Party System - Democrats vs. Republicans (1896 -1928) 1. The critical election of 1896 brou ght about a period of Republican dominance. Democrats were reduced to their base in the South, while Republicans dominated the North and West. E. The Fifth Party System (1932 -64) - Democratic dominance 1. The New Deal Coalition - alliance of work ing class ethnic groups, Catholics, urban dwellers, Jews, racial minorities, and the South was the basis of the Democratic party during this period. 2. Republicans increasingly became the party of business and the affluent. F. The Sixth Party System (1968 to the present) (Divided Government) 1. 1968 to 1992 is characterized by Republican control of the executive and Democratic control of Congress. During the 1990s, Democrats regain control of the White House but eventually lost Congress. From 2 000 - 2008, the Republicans maintained control of the executive but lost control of the legislative branch after the 2006 elections. Both Trump and Obama had unified control during their first two years but lost the House after their first mid term election cycle. IV Why a Two -Party System? A. The Media 1. Some see a bias in the media favoring the major parties. Democratic and Republic candidates, for instance, are covered routinely by the evening news. Third party candidates a re given little, if any, coverage. Ross Perot was able to challenge the major party candidates, in large part, because he wa s wealthy enough to buy advertising time. 2. The media, of course, argues that it does not cover third parties because they are not serious challengers and hence, not newsworthy. Third parties claim they are caught in a catch 22. They don’t get coverage because they are not newsworthy, but they are not news worthy because they are not covered by the media. B. Rules of the Gam e 1. Winner -Take -All, Single Member Districts - In the United States we generally elect only one per son to a given office based on whoever wins the most votes. A. This arrangement creates a powerful incentive for parties to coalesce and for voters to concentrate their attention on big parties. B. From a voter’s perspective, a single -member , winner -take -all election means that a vote for a minor party is wasted. C. To parties, these electoral rules discourage minor party activities because failure to come in first leaves such a party with no representation at all. The incentive for these groups is to merge with one of the larger parties. 2. Proportional Representation - Most other countries use some form of proportional representation - a type of electoral system in which legislative seats are apportioned to political parties in proportion to the popular vote that each party receives. Here, a vote for a third party is not wasted because it could very well lead to legislative seats and a place in a governing coalition.