 This theory has become popular in the last 2 decades and is the idea that parties are in decline in terms of membership and importance

 Party bosses in ‘smoke filled rooms’ no longer select their Presidential Nominees as this is now left to primaries and caucuses.  Media is focused more on candidates as opposed to parties. Often the president will try and distance himself from congress. Parties may often receive support due to a strong presidential candidate, not necessarily a strong party.  The fact that split ticket voting still exists and that there are split states and districts.( Such as Nevada and Montana)  Candidates for President and Congress raise most of their money themselves and rely on money from parties less and less. Obama is clearly a good example here.  Parties are losing their grass root values in order to appeal to new generations of voters. There are many conflicts within the Republican party due to leadership wanting to appeal to the rising number of libertarians and Hispanics.

 This is the theory that political parties are increasing in importance, during elections and voting in congress

 Significant increase in partisanship since the 70s, which is most prominent and problematic right now.  Straight ticket voting. There are far fewer split states and districts than in the 70s and 80s. Following the 2012 senatorial election only 6 out of 33 the seats were of a different party to the winning presidential candidate  Lack of independents in congress. Only 2 in the Senate, the rest is dominated by the two major parties. None in the House  National Party Campaigns such as the Republicans’ Contract with America (1994) or the Democrats’ 6 for 06 or the recent Democrat Senate unveil of ‘A Fair Shot for Everyone’. Both campaigns received strong backings from their respective parties and won back congress for the party in both cases.  Super delegates (Introduced in 1992) can still have a significant role in the Democratic National Convention when choosing the Presidential Nominee, thus still giving the party some control. In the 2008 Democratic primary they were the deciding factor and helped Barack Obama secure nomination.

 Parties are arguably declining due to the loss of control over the nomination process. Party Bosses in ‘smoke filled rooms’ can no longer choose the Presidential Nominee, who is now chosen in primaries and caucuses. However, the Democrat party, since 1982, still maintains some control over the process with unpledged superdelegates who had a significant impact on Obama’s success in securing nomination.  It is still a fact that split ticket voting still occurs and there are still a number of split senate/president states such as Nevada and Montana. However, split ticket voting has significantly decreased since the 70s and of the 33 senatorial seats up for election in 2012, 27 of them returned a president and senators of the same party.  Arguably, voters are now much more focused on presidential candidates as opposed to political parties during the presidential election. A party’s success is largely due to their associated presidential candidate. This is largely due to media focus on presidential candidates as opposed to the party. However, especially during the mid-terms, the party does win back attention from media and voters by constructing national agendas, such as the Republicans’ ‘Contract with America’ in 94 or the Democrats’ 6 for 06 in 2006, both of which helped the parties win back congress in those years.  Furthermore, during elections congressional and Presidential candidates are much less dependent on their parties and quite often raise large sums of money without the help of their party. Of course, Obama famously opted out of the federal matching funds that were available due to his hugely successful online donation set-up.  However, the main thing that largely undermines the argument of decline is the current levels of partisanship in congress. The last two congresses have received abysmal approval ratings due to the constant party disputes that occur. There were party unanimous votes on both ARRA and Obamacare in 2009 and the House still remains divided over immigration, whilst at the same time bottling up revenue bills to stop them from getting to the Senate.