The best that they can hope for is to influence a political party to get behind their cause and vote to have it adopted. Political parties on the other hand, have the power and ability to change laws and mandates by their voting clout. References Democratic Party (accessed 5-1-07) http://www.democrats.org/a/party/history.html Interest Groups (accessed 5-1-07) http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0216125-00&templatename=/article/article.html Republican Party (accessed 5-1-07) http://www.mcgop.net/History.htm Walker, Jack L., Jr., Mobilizing Interest Groups in America (Univ. Of Mich. Press 1991).

However, class-based differences in party identification remained prominent and actually grew stronger in the 1970s and 1980s, with upper-class and middle-class individuals identifying more strongly with the Republican Party" (309). Likewise, Pomerantz (1999) notes that, "While people change their party identity only rarely, the significance of that affiliation waxes and wanes over time" (37). Citing the research conducted by Wattenberg based on data collected in the National Election Studies

Over the years, the electoral process has changed a lot. As per the original rules, each state legislature selected its electors. The electors would then assemble at a given time and vote for two people. The person with the majority of votes became the president and the runner-up became the vice-president. This system was in practice until the 1800 election. (the Presidential Electoral Process) By 1800, American politics were dominated

Beyond Separation of Powers As high school students we all learned about the Constitutional separation of powers. With each of the three branches of government -- the judicial, executive, and legislative -- having the power to limit the power of the others, no one aspect of government could hold the American people hostage. This was the structure that the Framers put into effect to ensure that Americans would have an efficient,

U.S. Congress is composed of two chambers, the House of Representatives (with 435 members representing fifty states) and the Senate (with 100 members, with two members elected from each State). The Republican and Democrat parties select their candidates for the two chambers of the Congress in primary elections, "election in which registered voters in a jurisdiction select a political party's candidate for a later election (nominating primary)" After winning a primary election,

Democratic and Republican parties have been able to maintain their strength and their membership numbers since the Civil War for both structural and ideological reasons. The ideological reasons are the most obvious to an observer and to many members of the parties; indeed it is because of the ideological positions of the two parties that people align themselves by party. The ideologies of each party are complex; a better