Beginning of Essay
Government policy is made by elected officials who are members of . In the United States most elected officials are members of either the Democratic or Republican party, though occasionally members of smaller parties are also elected. are organizations that wish ....

Middle of Essay
.... the centuries when laws were made by kings and their advisers, parties could not exist because there were no elected officials. Parties began to emerge in Europe and North America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when elected legislatures became a dominant force in government. In the earliest decades in which existed, their memberships were quite small. In the United States and England, for example, most citizens were not allowed to vote. Party membership, therefore, consisted mainly of landowners, members of the nobility, factory owners, merchants, and other wealthy individuals By the third decade of the 19th century in the United State ....