ABSTRACT
The functions of real political parties go back longer in time than to turn-of-the-century machinations. Parties are organizations for acquiring control over powerful offices of government, and they act accordingly. Parties that work only for themselves may be real enough in their own evaluations, and in those of scholars intent on studying them regardless of their social usefulness. Instead, parties promised to perform specific functions—and voters who took the job seriously evaluated them on the basis of the quality of that performance. Political parties do perform some part of the job of structuring the vote. Yet there is little if any evidence that the parties are interested in making changes that would put themselves back in the ring as leading agencies in the democratic process. The parties have become the tool—and merely one among many that are stronger—of persons much more interested in taking power for personal advantage than in resolving the problems from which we as a nation suffer.
