Political Spectrum Survey

One of our goals as teachers of American History is to help students become informed citizens so that they can participate in the political process.  Our democratic system works best when citizens make clear voting decisions in local and national elections.  This lesson first asks the students to take a political survey to determine some of their own political beliefs.  Then the students engage in a study of the first political parties, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists in the 1790s.  The key goal of the lesson is to help the students make a connection between individual values and political parties.  Political parties are, in fact, an expression of a series of individual values.  The lesson is also a prelude in how the influence and rise and fall of political parties help us understand trends that take place throughout American History.

Values are evident in how someone chooses to vote.  Political parties exist, in part, based on the accumulation of values over political issues.  By understanding why political parties exist, students can begin to connect their own individual values with politics.  Students also recognize that, historically speaking, political parties became the way for large groups of people to express their values.  Our commitment to one political party over another reveals our political frame.  The useful information

we gather on individual candidates or political parties are necessary to establish a consistent political frame that is ultimately expressed in voting.