Political parties and interest
groups often run campaigns completely independently of candidates and their
efforts can begin long before and last long after an election season. Both
groups act as intermediaries between the public and the officeholders and for
many voters are the basis on which the decision of who to vote for is made. In many
cases, voters will decide in a cause or a political party to support before they
even consider the candidates themselves. The goal line of selecting public
officials is what bonds political parties and what differentiates them from
other groups. The two key political parties are the democrats and republicans
which work in a different way but both endeavor to attain the similar electoral
end. An interest group or a group of people with the communal goal of manipulating
public policy are different from political parties in that they do not run
their individual candidates for office and they classically seek more precise
policy goals than parties. The main way they have an effect on public policy is
that they supply evidence to the legislators or the political parties.
