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5. How Do Citizens Connect With Their Government?

Parties, campaigns and elections, interest groups, the press, and the arrival of the internet in politics.

5. How Do Citizens Connect With Their Government?

One of James Madison's many contributions to The Federalist Papers was an essay that outlined his vision of Congress as a body of chosen individuals that the p…

5a. Political Parties

During the 1860s, Thomas Nast — a cartoonist for the magazine Harper's Weekly — developed the idea of using the donkey and the elephant to represent the Democr…

5b. Campaigns and Elections

Collectively on all levels of government, Americans fill more than 500,000 different public offices. The "winner-take-all" system of elections in the United St…

5c. Interest Groups

When controversy erupted over whether to keep both the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts as single-sex organizations, representatives from both groups exercised a for…

5d. The Media

Ronald Reagan's ability to use the media to reach the people helped him land the nickname "The Great Communicator." Here, Reagan steps to the podium to deliver…

5e. The Internet in Politics

Not since television has an innovation had the potential to impact politics greater than the Internet. With more and more Americans getting wired, the ability…