MTEL Communication Literacy Skills : Writing Practice Test

Which of the following is an example of correct capitalization for a political philosophy?

1. transcendentalism

2. Democratic Party

3. Communist Party member

4. republicanism

The correct answer is: Democratic Party

Capitalization rules for political philosophies often depend on whether the terms are general concepts or specific entities. In the case of the Democratic Party, this is the official name of a specific political organization; therefore, it requires capitalization of both words. Transcendentalism and republicanism are general concepts and do not refer to specific entities or official titles, so they are not capitalized in that context. Similarly, while "Communist Party" is capitalized because it refers to a specific political party, "Communist Party member" only capitalizes the proper noun when referring to the party itself; the term "member" is not a proper noun and remains lowercase. Thus, only the phrase referring to the specific entity—the Democratic Party—adheres to the rules of proper capitalization in this context.