Introduction. Political parties are teams of politicians, activists, and voters whose goal is to win control of government. To do so, parties perform essential tasks of recruiting and nominating candidates, garnering the resources needed to run campaigns, and pursuing a policy agenda that can help them appeal to voters. Political parties are institutions that seek to control the government through the winning of offices; whereas interest groups are âbenefit seekersâ looking for policy gains, parties tend to be composed of office seekers.