Reference no: EM133428653

Assignment:

Third parties often play a small, outside role in US national elections. You may hear the effect of third parties in one of three ways: spoiler role (where the third party candidate siphons voters away from the candidate with the most similar ideology), innovator (a source of innovative campaign ideas that can be adopted by a major party platform or candidate), and as a safety valve (channeling frustration with the two party system into an alternative instead of dismantling the two party system or worse).

Because of the threat that popularly supported third party candidates may present to Democrats and Republicans, we can see efforts within the two parties to create barriers to success. Watch this video explaining barriers for third party candidates.

Then read the following article.

1. Choose one of the three party platforms linked here: Libertarian, Green, or Socialist party to compare with one of the major parties.

2. Choose three issues from one of the third parties to compare with either the Democratic Party Platform or the Republican Party Platform in a chart.

3. Based on your comparisons respond to the following in paragraph format:

• Describe the similarities and/or differences of the three positions you compared.
• Based on the similarities between the platforms, what specific group of voters does the major party want to attract that otherwise would support the minor party?