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Chapter 9: Political Parties. Parties - Here & Abroad. Political parties in other democratic nations are more effective at mobilizing voters than those here in the US. Parties in the United States are relatively weak… Laws and rules have taken away much of the political parties power - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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• Political parties in other democratic nations are more effective at mobilizing voters than those here in the US.
• Parties in the United States are relatively weak…– Laws and rules have taken away
much of the political parties power
– Also, many voters have lost their sense of commitment to party identification
• Political Party – group that seeks to elect candidates to public office by supplying them with a label – a “party identification”
• Party label is printed on ballot in US National Elections
• Three political arenas within which parties may be found
1. Label
2. Organization – that recruits and campaigns for candidates
3. Set of leaders – try to organize and control the legislative and executive branches
• AMERICAN PARTIES HAVE BECOME WEAKER IN ALL THREE ARENAS
• What is a powerful Party?– One whose label has a
strong appeal for voters– Whose organization can
decide who will be candidates and how their campaigns will be managed
– Whose leaders can dominate one or all branches of government
• “In most states parties have very little control over who gets nominated to office. The causes and consequences of that change are the subject of this chapter”
• IN EUROPE….– Parties stronger because…
• Almost only way to become a candidate for elective office is to be nominated by party leaders
• Campaigns are run by party and not candidates
• IN EUROPE…– NO PRIMARY ELECTIONS– Only way to become
candidate for office is to persuade party leaders to put your name on the ballot
– Majority party in Parliament in Europe chooses chief executive of government (Prime Minister) Great Britain
• UNITED STATES DECENTRALIZED POLITICAL PARTIES….
– Important governmental decisions made on the state & local levels
– Example: the Republican leader of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, could ignore decisions of the Republican national chairman
– NOW…political authority in United States has become more CENTRALIZED – Federal Gov more involved in our lives
• IN THE UNITED STATES….
– We chose candidates of party through Primary Elections, or Caucus
– We Choose President not the party
• POLITICAL CULTURE….– In Europe large number of citizens will
join a party, pay dues, and attend regular meetings
– In the United States, political parties do not play an important part in the life of the average citizen• Do not join party except by voting
for that party’s candidate• More people becoming Independent
• THE FOUNDING…– The Founders disliked
parties, thinking of them as “factions” motivated by ambition and self-interest
– George Washington – in his Farewell Address condemned parties
• THE FOUNDING…– First organized political
party began in the 1790s under Thomas Jefferson called the Republicans• The Jeffersonian
Republicans are more akin to present-day Democrats
• Jefferson’s rival party was called the Federalists
• PARTY REALIGNMENTS…– Critical or realigning
periods – major shifts occur in the popular coalition supporting one or both parties
– Some years heavily Democrat and other years heavily Republican
• TWO KINDS OF REALIGNMENTS1. A MAJOR PARTY IS SO BADLY
DEFEATED THAT IT DISAPPEARS AND A NEW PARTY EMERGES TO TAKE ITS PLACE
2. TWO EXISTING PARTIES CONTINUE BUT VOTERS SHIFT THEIR SUPPORT FROM ONE TO THE OTHER
• In short, an electoral realignment occurs when a new issue of utmost importance to the voters cuts across existing party divisions and replaces old issues that were formerly the basis of party identification
• PARTY DECLINE…– Split Ticket – voting for
candidates of different parties for various offices in the same election – has increased
• Creates divided government meaning Congress Democrat and Executive Branch Republican or vice versa
• Straight Ticket Voting –
voting for candidates who are of the same party. Example: vote Democrat for president and vote Democrat for Congressperson
• Office-bloc (or Massachusetts) ballot:
– A ballot listing all candidate of a given office under the name of that office – what we have today
• Party-column (or Indiana) ballot:
–Vote for Party not individual candidates
• Even with the increase in split ticket voting our two-party system remains strong
• Both Parties are quite similar….
– Both have national conventions – meet every 4 years to nominate president
– Both have national committees which manage convention party affairs
– Both have congressional campaign committee that helps members of Congress with elections
– Both have a national chairman who manages the day-to-day work of the party
• NATIONAL CONVENTIONS– The exact formula for appointing
delegates is extremely complex– Delegates do not have to vote
who they pledged to back – we vote for these delegates on the ballot
– Superdelegates are party leaders and elected officials who become delegates without running in primaries or caucuses
• Every state has a Democratic and Republican state party organized under state law
• THE MACHINE (213-215)– Party machine is an organization
that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives…• Money• Political jobs• Favors from government• Example, Tammany Hall in
NYC• Value winning above
everything else
• Combating the Party Machine– Hatch Act – made it illegal
for federal civil service employees to take an active part in political management or political campaigns by serving as party officers, soliciting campaign funds, etc. (214)
• IDEOLOGICAL PARTIES (215)– Value principles above
winning– Most firmly Ideological
parties – are third parties such as Right-to-Life Party
– They are issue orientated
• SOLIDARY GROUPS (215-216)– A groups of people who
enjoy politics rather than an interest in issues, as their reason for joining the party organization
– Solidary incentives – the social rewards (sense of pleasure, status, or companionship) that lead people to join political organizations
• SPONSORED PARTIES (216)– Occurs when another
organization exists in the community that can create, or at least, sponsor, a local party structure
– Example: Democratic Party in Detroit, has been developed, led, and to a degree financed by the political-action arm of the United Auto Workers Union
• PERSONAL FOLLOWING 216-217)– The support provided to a
candidate on the basis of personal popularity and networks
– To form a personal following – a candidate must have an appealing personality, a lot of friends, or a big bank account
• Two-Party System is rare throughout the world – only 15 nations have one
• In most state governments one party tends to enjoy a substantial advantage
• TWO REASONS WHY TWO-PARTY SYSTEM PERSISTS
1. Has to do with the system of elections
2. With the distribution of public opinion
• Plurality System – an electoral system in which the winner is the person who gets the most votes, even if he or she does not get 50 + 1 %– This is used in almost
all elections– The plurality system
hurts third parties
• Winner-Take-All– Electoral College – in
every state except Maine and Nebraska, the candidate who wins the most popular votes in a state wins all of the state’s electoral votes
– Hurts minority-parties
• PERSISTENCE OF TWO-PARTY IN THE OPINIONS OF THE VOTERS– Most of the time most
citizens have agreed enough to permit issues to come together into two broad coalitions
– People just like it this way
• Minor parties that survive, have been the ideological ones
• Factional party – is a party that split from another party– Example: Libertarians
may have split from the Republican party
• Minor parties develop ideas that the major party later adopts.– Example: the Socialist
Party called for major social and economic policies that the Democrats under President Franklin D. Roosevelt later adopted
• Greatest impact of Minority Parties is…– Minority Parties give a
threat of factional split which the two major parties make efforts to avoid
– Most successful third party movement was by Ross Perot who led the Reform Party
• Is much different today than in the past
• Majority parties face two contrary forces when choosing a candidate
1. Nominate a candidate who can appeal to the majority of voters; who will have middle-of-the-road views
2. Keep people from leaving party (factionalists) – they will compromise with the extremists. Such factions as Gun Rights, Abortion, Environment
• Today, power of party leaders & elected officials within the power has diminished.– WHY….– Because, most delegates
are voted for in the primary elections
• The delegates names appear on the ballot
• Example: John Doe (McCain); Jane Doe (Obama)
• ARE THE DELEGATES REPRESENTATIVE TO THE VOTERS?– NO. The delegates have had
views on a variety of important issues that were vastly different than those of the rank-and-file.
– Democrat delegates = more liberal
– Republican delegates = more conservative
• WHO VOTES IN PRIMARIES?– About half as many
people vote in primaries as in general elections
– More vote in Primary if there is a good fight. Example: Obama v. Hillary Clinton
• WHO VOTES IN CAUCUSES?
– Caucus – is a meeting of party followers where the delegates are picked• Only the most dedicated
partisans attend. For Democrats (liberals); for Republican (conservatives)
• WHO ARE THE NEW DELEGATES (225)– Both Republican and
Democrat delegates tend to be more issue-oriented activists
– Presidential nominating conventions are now heavily influenced by ideologically motivated activists
• Democrats have been winning Congress and not President
• Republicans have been winning Presidential office and not Congress
