Chapter 8: Political Parties American Democracy Now, 3/e

8 - 2 Parties Today and Their Functions A political party is an organization of ideologically similar people that nominates and elects its members to office in order to run the government and shape public policy. Parties identify potential candidates, nominate them to run for office, campaign for them, organize elections, and govern. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8 - 3 Defining a Political Party 1. Political parties run candidates under their own label, or affiliation. 2. Political parties seek to govern. 3. Political parties have broad concerns, focused on many issues. 4. Political parties are quasi-public organizations that have a special relationship with the government. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8 - 4 How Parties Engage Individuals Political parties represent one of the main channels through which citizens can make their voices heard. A fixture in the politics of American communities large and small, parties today are accessible to virtually everyone. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8 - 5 What Political Parties Do Parties provide a structure for people at the grassroots level to volunteer on party-run campaigns, make campaign contributions, work in the day-to-day operations of the party, and run for office. Political parties foster cooperation between divided interests and factions, building coalitions even in the most divisive of times. Political parties also grease the wheels of government and ensure its smooth running. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8 - 6 What Political Parties Do By serving as a training ground for members, political parties also foster effective government. Political parties promote civic responsibility among elected officials and give voters an important “check” on those elected officials. The responsible party model, posits that a party tries to give voters a clear choice by establishing priorities or policy stances different from those of the rival party or parties. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8 - 7 Political Parties The Three Faces of Parties  The Party in the Electorate Measuring the Party in the Electorate Determining Who Belongs to Each Political Party Differences Between Democrats and Republicans ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

8 - 8 The Three Faces of Parties The three components of the party include the party in the electorate, the party organization, and the party in government. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The Party in the Electorate: Measuring the Party in the Electorate The term party identifier refers to an individual who identifies himself or herself as a member of one party or the other; party identifiers typically are measured by party registration. An independent refers to a voter who does not belong to any organized political party; often used as a synonym for an unaffiliated voter. The party in the electorate also includes those individuals who express a tendency to vote for one party or a preference for that party. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Party in the Electorate: Determining Who Belongs to Each Political Party Whites, men, people with some college education, upper middle class, and conservatives are more likely to be Republicans. For the Democrats, key voting blocs include African Americans, Hispanics, working class, women, liberals, and people with no college education. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Party in the Electorate: Differences Between Democrats and Republicans The Democratic agenda includes: civil rights, support for social welfare programs, gay rights, environmental protection, and freedom of choice with respect to abortion. Traditionally, Republicans have countered that position by advocating a smaller government that performs fewer social welfare functions. But a major priority for the Republican Party today is advocacy of a stronger governmental role in regulating traditional moral values. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Political Parties Where Do You Stand? In your opinion, which major U.S. political party does a better job of ensuring a healthy economy? a. Republican Party b. Democratic Party c. Neither party d. No opinion Source: “Party Images,” ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Party Organization Party organization refers to the formal party apparatus, including committees, headquarters, conventions, party leaders, staff, and volunteer workers. Theoretically, parties’ organization resembles a pyramid. In reality, the national committees of both major U.S. political parties exist separately from the committees of the state and local parties (and real political power can usually be found at the local or county party level. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The National Parties Every four years, political party activists meet at a national convention to determine their party’s nominee for the presidency. The national party committees are the national party organizations charged with conducting the conventions and overseeing the operation of the national party during the interim between conventions. The national committee elects a national chair. The national chair, along with the paid staff of the national committee, oversees the day-to-day operations of the political party. One of the most important roles of the national chair has been to raise funds. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

State Parties Both national parties have committees in each state that effectively are the party in that state. State committees act as intermediaries between the national committees and county committees. Typically, state committees are made up of a few members from each county or other geographical subdivision of a given state. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

County and Local Parties County committees consist of members of municipal, ward, and precinct party committees. County committees help recruit candidates for office, raise campaign funds, and mobilize voters. In most major cities, ward committees and precinct committees dominate party politics. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Party in Government The party in government—the partisan identification of elected leaders in local, county, state, and national government—significantly influences the organization and running of the government at these various levels. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Divided Government When Republicans won control of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2010, President Obama faced truncated government, when one chamber of Congress is controlled by the same party that controls the White House, while the other chamber is controlled by the other party. During parts of the Bill Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, the president and the members of Congress functioned with a divided government, the situation in which one party controls both houses of Congress and the other party, the presidency. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Political Parties in U.S. History Party system refers to the number and competitiveness of political parties in a polity. The demarcation of party systems typically occurs, when social scientists recognize points where there has been realignment, a shift in party allegiances or electoral support. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The First Party System: The Development of Parties, In 1788, George Washington was elected president, but the consensus surrounding his election proved short-lived. Hamilton & the Federalists favored strong national government. Opposed by Jefferson who feared strong national government. The 1796 and 1800 elections. The 1800 election marked end of Federalists. The supporters became of Jefferson known as Jeffersonian Republicans; later, Democratic-Republicans. The modern descendants of the Democratic-Republicans today are called Democrats. The Era of Good Feelings ( ). ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Second Party System: The Democrats’ Rise to Power, The Jacksonian Democrats. They espoused populism and the spoils system. The Jacksonian Democrats succeeded in mobilizing the masses, sweeping Jackson to victory in the presidential election of Whig party founded in 1836 to represent interests of southern plantation owners and northern industrialists. Political parties had become the medium through which many Americans were politicized, and in 1828, for the first time, more than one million Americans cast their ballots in the presidential contest. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Third Party System: The Republicans’ Rise to Power, In the 1850s, slavery became the primary concern for both the Whigs and the Democrats. A new antislavery party, the Republicans, formed 1854 and gained the support of abolitionist Whigs and northern Democrats. The victory of the Republican presidential nominee, Abraham Lincoln, in the election of 1860 marked the beginning of a period of dominance of the antislavery Republicans, which continued even after the Civil War. During this time, the Republican Party enjoyed strong support from newly franchised African-American voters. Political machines came to dominate the political landscape during this period. Party bosses & patronage system. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Fourth Party System: Republican Dominance, election ushered in an era of Republican dominance in presidential politics that would last until the election of In 1912 presidential election, Theodore Roosevelt, ran as a Progressive. The Republicans’ split between William Howard Taft ’s regular Republicans and Roosevelt’s Progressives powered Democrat Woodrow Wilson to the presidency with only 42 percent of the popular vote. Progressive reforms during Wilson presidency. After Wilson’s two terms, the Republicans retained control of the presidency throughout the 1920s. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A New Party System? Political scientists have sought to determine whether the era that began when Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968 can be considered a separate party system. Republican dominance of the presidency since 1968, coupled with increasing support of the Republican Party by southern whites and the increasing activism of conservative Christians in the party, gives support to the claim that a new party system has emerged ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Fifth Party System: Democratic Dominance, Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) elected in 1932 election. FDR promoted a New Deal- broad program in which the government would bear the responsibility of providing a “safety net” to protect the most disadvantaged members of society. FDR supported by New Deal coalition—a voting bloc comprising traditional southern Democrats, northern city dwellers (especially immigrants and the poor), Catholics, unionized and blue- collar workers, African Americans, and women. Truman (1948) and Eisenhower (1952 & 1956) election victories. Although Democrats John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson held the presidency through most of the 1960s, the events of that decade wreaked havoc on the Democratic Party, with deep divisions opening up over the Vietnam War and civil rights for African Americans. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

A New Party System? Additional characteristics of this new party system, according to scholars, include intense party competition, and divided government. Some scholars see dealignment and ticket splitting as notable characteristics of this new party system. The period since 1968 has also been characterized by the growing importance of candidate centered politics. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Two-Party Domination in U.S. Politics Since the ratification of the Constitution in 1787, the United States has had a two-party system for all but about 30 years in total. A third party is a political party organized as opposition or an alternative to the existing parties in a two-party system. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Dualist Nature of Most Conflicts Historically, many issues in the United States have been dualist, or “two-sided.” Political scientists Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan asserted that the dualist nature of voter alignments or cleavages shapes how political parties form. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Winner-Take-All Electoral System In almost all U.S. elections, the person with the most votes wins. Compare the winner-take-all system with the proportional representation system found in many nations. In a proportional representation system, political parties win the number of parliamentary seats equal to the percentage of the vote each party receives. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Continued Socialization to the Two- Party System Party identification—like ideology, values, and religious beliefs—is an attribute that often passes down from one generation to the next. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Election Laws That Favor the Two- Party System At both the federal and the state level in the United States, election laws benefit the two major parties because they are usually written by members of one of those parties. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Two-Party System Today: In Decline or in Resurgence? Given the various historical changes to the U.S. political party system that we have examined, many political scientists have inquired into what the impact of those changes will be. Do the changes signify an end to party control in American politics? Or can political parties adapt to the altered environment and find new sources of power? ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Party’s Over Some argue that the elimination of political patronage through the requirement of civil service qualifications for government employees has significantly hurt parties’ ability to reward loyal followers with government jobs. Other political scientists emphasize the government’s increased role over time in providing social welfare benefi ts as a contributor to the decline of political parties. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Party’s Over Primary elections have decreased parties’ power by taking the control of nominations from party leaders and handing it to voters. Changes in the mass media have also meant a drastically decreased role for political parties. The rise in candidate-centered campaigns has also weakened political parties. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Party’s Just Begun According to this view, the parties’ ability to rebound is alive and well. These scholars argue that the continued dominance in the United States of two political parties—through decades of threats to their survival—has demonstrated a strength and a resilience that are likely to prevail. Scholars also cite the lack of viable alternatives to the two-party system. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Political Parties Third Parties in the United States  Types of Third Parties Issue Advocacy Parties Ideologically Oriented Parties Splinter Parties  The Impact of Third Parties ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Third Parties in the United States Because of the differing ideological viewpoints of those who agree a third party is needed, third parties have had little success in contesting elections. One of the most significant obstacles to the formation of a viable third party is that people who are dissatisfied with the two dominant parties fall across the ideological spectrum. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Third Parties in the United States Third parties are particularly effective at encouraging the civic engagement of people who feel that the two dominant parties do not represent their views or do not listen to them. In recent years, we have seen this role played by the Tea Party, which has channeled the participation of many conservatives frustrated with the two major political parties. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Types of Third Parties: Issue Advocacy Parties Formed to promote a stance on a particular issue, many issue advocacy parties are short-lived. Once the issue is dealt with or fades from popular concern, the mobilizing force behind the party disintegrates. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Types of Third Parties: Ideologically Oriented Parties The agenda of an ideologically oriented party is typically broader than that of an issue-oriented party. Examples, include the Libertarian and Socialist parties. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Third Parties in the United States: Splinter Parties A splinter party is a political party that breaks off, or “splinters,” from one of the two dominant parties. In 1948, a group of southern Democrats who opposed the Democratic Party’s support of civil rights for African Americans splintered from the Democratic Party to form the States’ Rights Party, which quickly became known as the Dixiecrat Party. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Impact of Third Parties Although U.S. third parties usually do not win elections, they can influence electoral outcomes. For example, given the closeness of the 2000 presidential race, many Democrats believe that Green Party candidate Ralph Nader caused Democrat Al Gore to lose the election. Third parties provide a release valve for dissatisfied voters. Third parties put a variety of issues on the national political agenda. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Political Parties Where Do You Stand? Do you think the Republican and Democratic parties represent the interests of the American people effectively, or do we need a third major party? a. They do an effective job. b. We need a third major party. c. No opinion Source: “Party Images,” ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Political Parties New Ideologies, New Technologies: The Parties in the Twenty-First Century  Struggling for the Heart of the Republican Party: Moderates, Neocons, and a Tea Party Movement  Democrats Today  Changing Both Parties: New Technologies ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

New Ideologies, New Technologies: The Parties in the Twenty-First Century American political parties have changed dramatically in recent years. Global events such as the end of the Cold War, international and domestic terrorism, a multifront war, and the impact of the Internet and cellular technologies have partly driven the changes. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Struggling for the Heart of the Republican Party: Moderates, Neocons, and a Tea Party Movement Tea Partiers have identified five key principles they believe: 1. less government 2. fiscal responsibility 3. lower taxes 4. states’ rights 5. national security ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Struggling for the Heart of the Republican Party: Moderates, Neocons, and a Tea Party Movement Neoconservatives are less concerned with domestic issues but are frequently defined by their aggressive foreign policy stance, particularly in defense of Israel. Neoconservatives also advocate for the proactive spread of democracy. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Democrats Today When it comes to issues and policy priorities, today’s Democrats, under Obama’s leadership, more resemble the Democrats of the mid- twentieth century: a party that emphasized a strong role of government. There also is an emphasis and a sophistication when it comes to maximizing the use of new technologies in politics. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Changing Both Parties: New Technologies Today more and more people in the electorate are finding information about issues on the Internet and via their cell phones. Parties are increasingly using new technologies as tools for reaching loyalists and communicating with potential supporters. ©2013, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.