Final answer:
Political parties in a democracy serve as key linkage institutions to translate inputs from the public into outputs from the policymakers.
Step-by-step explanation:
Political parties in a democracy serve as key linkage institutions to translate inputs from the public into outputs from the policymakers. They act as a mechanism to represent the concerns and desires of the people and turn them into laws and policies. Political parties help sift through the issues, identify the most important and popular concerns, and then place these on the government agenda. They also offer citizens different viewpoints or opinions of how the government and society should be governed.