What makes the tea party tick?

Unlike the two major political parties, the tea party movement has no single leader, no centralized structure and no formal organization. So what defines this grassroots movement?

In a partnership with Yahoo! News, USA Today's Kathy Kiely and Susan Page set out to answer that question by interviewing tea party activists around the country.

Despite the lack of a national communication system, Kiely and Page found, tea party members from all over the U.S. share common beliefs, inspiration and goals that paint a broad picture of what drives today's tea party movement.

Read the complete report here.

(Photo: AP/Charlie Riedel)