01:790:104 Lecture Notes - Dealignment, Federalist No. 10, Party System

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: 01:790:104
• Professor: Anna Mahoney

Document Summary

Solution proposed by madison: the theory that all interests are and should be free to compete with one another for influence in the government by which the outcome of this competition is compromise and moderation. If we"re going to have these groups that are self-interested, the least we can do is make the parties fight it out (through elections, negotiations, and compromise). We will have to compromise and come to what is best for the nation. In reality, groups do not have equal resources or access to government: two party system- republicans and democrats have access to a lot more resources than third parties. Special interest influence on government is not clearly understood: there are some groups that have common political resources but can"t come together and create a big group because they don"t have access to enough resources. Political parties: outgrowths of the electoral process, take their structure from the electoral process.