ABSTRACT
Political parties, like interest groups, are sets of like-minded individualswho work to make their government more supportive of their values,goals, and policy preferences. But political parties and interest groups differ in how they organize and act to affect politics. As we saw in the previous chapter, interest groups usually focus on a narrow range of issues that are of particular interest to their members and try to influence officeholders to act favorably on those issues. Political parties adopt attractive policy positions, recruit and train talented candidates, and support those candidates in elections. Their ultimate goal is to win majority control of government so that they can appoint senior officials and influence all of the issues that come before the government.1
