There are two readings below that will help you better understand political parties and their role in government and as a linkage institution. Please read and then answer the following questions. These readings and questions will be used on quizzes and tests.
Party Government Reading Questions
1. In what ways does Schattschneider describe the Constitution as pro-party and anti-party?
2. Describe Shattschneider’s “law of the imperfect political mobilization of interests.”
3. To what extent do you feel the operation of the law of imperfect mobilization of political interest protects the system against domination by interest groups?
Divided We Govern Reading Questions
1. If Mayhew is correct to argue that divided government seems to have little effect on the outcome of policymaking, why do so many critics of the system hold to the idea as the root of government gridlock?
2. Mayhew argues that the critics of divided government often look to European party-government models as a kind of grail. Why is this? Is the party government model incompatible with American political culture and institutions as Mayhew suggests?
3. In 1994, voters elected a Republican Congress for the first time in forty years ending a brief period in which the Democrats controlled the White House and Congress. Does this suggest that voters have an allegiance to divided government? Do voters support divided government, even as many political scientists criticize it?