2. Chapter 12 Political Parties
One of the biggest misconceptions about political parties is that their ideological platforms have always remained stagnate. Actually, the lineage of the two major parties is quite complicated and has many, often contradictory explanations. Republicans claim Lincoln and Emancipation, and Democrats are blamed for filibustering the Civil Rights Act. In some ways, this is correct—only in name however. Whether Republican or Democrat, conservatives opposed emancipation and the Civil Rights legislation enacted one hundred years later. The parties have essentially switched coats, so to speak (as Lincoln described it) more than once. What began as the party of small government and personal freedom (the anti-Federalists) quickly became the party of big government. The new Democrats fancying themselves as the party of liberty opposed slave emancipation. The Republican Party of 1860 was the progressive party, using the powers of the federal government to overrule state’s powers (and Democrats) to free the slaves. Later, in the twentieth century it is the Southern Democrats that filibustered the Civil Rights Act, while both Democrat and Republican members of Congress in the North favored its passage.
More important, and more static in policy, has been ideology. The definition of Conservative is “to conserve”, or to preserve the existing status quo power structure. Where as progressive (today’s liberal) tries to alter the existing power structure. So, Federalists wished to preserve the power structure as held by the British; strong central government. Anti-Federalists wanted to tear down that power structure to end its tyranny over the masses, to better incorporate power among the masses. Federalist=Conservative, Anti-Federalist=Progressive. After this, however, there is a fundamental change. The Democratic Party begins to use states rights to preserve the existing power structure—in the form of slave society, essentially an even older state of feudalism. The Republican Party uses the powers of the federal government to change this existing power structure in order to emancipate the slaves, generally speaking, a progressive stance. Lincoln’s Republicans=Progressive, Jackson’s Democrats=Conservative. During the next hundred years this changes again; the Republican Party clings to the existing status quo power while Democrats push for labor rights to shift power to the masses. The Great Depression solidly sets Republicans on the side of small government, whereas Democrats take the side of increased federal powers. Post WWII, Republicans still on the side of state’s rights, also attempt to keep status quo social issues as well. Democrats turn to altering the status quo power structure introducing civil rights for women, people of color, etc., all using the power of the federal government. Johnson’s Democrats= Progressive, Berry Goldwater’s Republicans=Conservative. The South, whether Republican or Democrat, has ALWAYS been conservative save for the short-lived Jeffersonian progressive push.
Chapter 12 Political Parties

3. Chapter Outline and Learning Objectives
LO 12.1: Political parties have been a presence in American politics since the nation’s infancy. The Federalists and the Democratic- Republicans were the first two parties to emerge in the late 1700s. In 1832, the Democratic Party (which succeeded the Democratic- Republicans) held the first national presidential nomination convention to nominate Andrew Jackson, and the Whig Party formed around opposition to the president. The Democratic and Whig Parties strengthened for several years until the issue of slavery led to the Whig Party’s gradual dissolution and replacement by the Republican Party (formed by antislavery activists to push for the containment of slavery). From 1860 to this day, the same two political parties, Democratic and Republican, have dominated elections in the United States.
LO 12.2: The national party organization sits at the top of the party system. A chairperson leads the national party, and every four years the national committee of each party organizes a national convention to nominate a candidate for the presidency. The state and local parties are the heart of party activism, as virtually all government regulation of political parties is left to the states. The state governing body, generally called the state central or executive committee, supervises the collection of local party organizations.
Roots of the Two-Party System
LO 12.1: Trace the evolution of the two-party system in the United States.
The Organization of American Political Parties
LO 12.2: Outline the structure of American political parties at the national, state, and local levels.

4. Chapter Outline and Learning Objectives
LO 12.3:For over 200 years, the two-party system has served as the mechanism American society uses to organize and resolve social and political conflict. The two major parties provide vital services to society, including running candidates for office, proposing and formulating policy, organizing government, and furthering unity, linkage, and accountability.
LO 12.4: Most American voters have a personal affinity for a political party, which summarizes their political views and preferences and is expressed by a tendency to vote for the candidates of that party. This party identification begins with political socialization; parents are the single greatest influence on a person’s political leanings. However, different group affiliations including geographic region, gender, race and ethnicity, age, social and economic factors, religion, and marital status also impact individuals’ loyalties to political parties, and these may change over the course of a lifetime.
Activities of American Political Parties
LO 12.3: Identify the functions performed by American political parties.
Party Identification
LO 12.4: Analyze how political socialization and group affiliations shape party identification.

5. Chapter Outline and Learning Objectives
LO 12.5: Minor parties have often significantly affected American politics. Often ideas of minor parties that become popular with the electorate are co-opted by one of the two major parties eager to secure supporters. Minor parties make progress when the two major parties fail to incorporate new ideas or alienated groups or if they do not nominate attractive candidates for office. However, many of the institutional features of American politics, including the winner-take-all system and the Electoral College, encourage the grouping of interests into as few parties as possible.
LO 12.6: The American two-party system endures for several reasons. Political parties serve as reliable vehicles for mass participation; they are flexible and pragmatic and have the ability to adapt to prevailing conditions; they provide strong competition for each other and the voters at the national level; they provide an outlet for conflict definition and resolution; and the party in government and the party organizations are stronger than ever.
Minor Parties in the American Two-Party System
LO 12.5: Evaluate the role of minor parties in the American two-party system.
Toward Reform: Two Parties Endure
LO 12.6: Explain why the two major American political parties continue to endure.

6. The Development of Political Parties, 1800-1824
Roots of the Two-Party System LO 12.1: Trace the evolution of the two-party system in the United States.
The Development of Political Parties,
Washington’s warning
Anti-Federalists
Jefferson
Democratic Republicans
Federalists
Adams
Jacksonian Democracy,
Ends the Era of Good Feelings
1832 National Conventions
The Whig Party
To Learning Objectives

7. Roots of the Two-Party System
LO 12.1
Roots of the Two-Party System
Photo: a popular trivia question: where did the donkey and elephant symbols come from? Thomas Nast, political cartoonist first used the donkey in 1870, deriding Democrats for publicly abusing former Lincoln Secretary of War Edwin Stanton who had just died. His cartoon was entitled  ”live jackass kicking a dead lion,” suggested the reverse of the old proverb, “A live ass is better than a dead lion.” The Elephant was first used in an 1874 cartoon depicting the Republicans stampeding in a panic away from the Democrats after they had lost control of Congress for the first time since the Civil War. Nast was a contemporary and friend of Mark Twain and shared his political views: generally progressive; anti imperialist, anti racist.
Source:
The Golden Age,
Lincoln, Republicans
Political Machines
Tammany Hall
The Modern Era
The New Deal
Candidate Centered Politics
Citizen Support and Party Realignment
Critical Elections
Secular realignments
Shift in the South—the 1990s.
To Learning Objectives

8. LO 12.1
_____________was a democratic political machine that ran New York City in the 1870s.
Whig
The Donkey
The Elephant
Tammany Hall
The John Birch Society
To Learning Objectives

9. LO 12.1
_____________was a democratic political machine that ran New York City in the 1870s.
Whig
The Donkey
The Elephant
Tammany Hall
The John Birch Society
To Learning Objectives 9

10. The Organization of American Political Parties LO 12
The Organization of American Political Parties LO 12.2: Outline the structure of American political parties at the national, state, and local levels.
Photo Caption: How do national parties discipline unruly state parties?
On May 31, 2008, protesters gathered outside a meeting of the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee as it debated how to treat convention delegates from Florida and Michigan, who had defied party regulations by holding their primary elections too early. With over 591,000 votes cast in Michigan and almost 1.7 million in Florida, the committee’s solution was to give each delegate half a vote. Before the convention, Senator Barack Obama, assured of winning the nomination, offered a motion to seat all of Michigan and Florida’s delegates and grant them full voting rights. The motion was later granted.
National party
National chairperson
National committee
National convention
Superdelegates
Large television audiences
States and localities
States regulate parties
Smallest unit is the precinct
Informal groups
National Federation of Republican Women, the Young Republicans, Think Tanks (the Heritage Foundation)
To Learning Objectives

11. The American Enterprise Institute is an example of what?
LO 12.2
The American Enterprise Institute is an example of what?
A “think tank”
A political machine
A political action committee
A special interest group
A non-profit group
To Learning Objectives

12. The American Enterprise Institute is an example of what?
LO 12.2
The American Enterprise Institute is an example of what?
A “think tank”
A political machine
A political action committee
A special interest group
A non-profit group
To Learning Objectives 12

13. Running candidates for office
Activities of American Political Parties LO 12.3: Identify the functions performed by American political parties.
Photo Caption: How do parties help mobilize support for candidates?
One common method of gathering support and raising enthusiasm for candidates is to hold campaign rallies. This photo shows such a rally for Senator John McCain’s (AZ) 2008 presidential election bid.
Running candidates for office
Raising money
Record numbers
Mobilizing support and getting-out-the-vote (GOTV)
Public opinion surveys
Television ads
GOTV – Republican voter
vaults, Democratic unions
and interest groups
Formulating and
promoting policy
National party platform
Two-thirds implemented by
winning party
One-half of the losing party’s platform implemented
To Learning Objectives

14. Activities of American Political Parties
LO 12.3
Photo Caption: What does a nonpartisan president look like?
President Dwight D. Eisenhower is as close to a nonpartisan president as modern America has ever had. Though he was very popular personally, his moderate agenda and unwillingness to work with party leaders translated into little support for the Republican Party.
Activities of American Political Parties
Organizing government
Parties in Congress
Loyalty
The party line
Decentralization
The presidential party
Parties in the federal courts
Parties in state governments
Influence
Furthering unity, linkage, and accountability
Parties link branches of government
To Learning Objectives

15. LO 12.3
In the course of the past few decades, party unity among the Democratic and Republican parties has __________.
become less unified
stayed the same
become more unified.
To Learning Objectives

16. LO 12.3
In the course of the past few decades, party unity among the Democratic and Republican parties has __________.
become less unified
stayed the same
become more unified.
To Learning Objectives 16

17. Political socialization Group affiliations
Party Identification LO 12.4: Analyze how political socialization and group affiliations shape party identification.
Photo Caption: How does ethnicity affect party identification?
A delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention holds a “Hispanic Voter” sign while reacting to speeches at Invesco Field in Denver, Colorado. In the wake of Republican support for strict enforcement of immigration laws, the deportation of illegal immigrants, and a border fence with Mexico, nearly two-thirds of Hispanics identified themselves as Democrats during the 2008 election.
Party identification
Political socialization
Early socialization
Group affiliations
Geographic region
Gender
Race and ethnicity
Age
Social and economic factors
Religion
Marital status
To Learning Objectives

18. Conservative voters tend to be what?
LO 12.4
Conservative voters tend to be what?
Male
White
Wealthy
Religious
Older
All of the above
To Learning Objectives

19. Conservative voters tend to be what?
LO 12.4
Conservative voters tend to be what?
Male
White
Wealthy
Religious
Older
All of the above
To Learning Objectives 19

20. Formation and role of third parties
Minor Parties in the American Two-Party System LO 12.5: Evaluate the role of minor parties in the American two-party system.
Photo Caption: Why do minor parties form?
In 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt lost the Republican nomination to incumbent President William Howard Taft, a conservative. Roosevelt, who represented the progressive wing of the Republican Party and supported issues like conservation and labor protection, staged a walkout from the Republican Convention. He and other like-minded Republicans reconvened their own Progressive “Bull Moose” Party at the Chicago Coliseum in August of 1912, shown here.
Formation and role of third parties
Social issues
Civil rights issues
Trust in government
Effectiveness
Barriers to third-party success
Proportional representation
Winner-take-all system
To Learning Objectives

21. Theodore Roosevelt led the _________ party.
LO 12.5
Theodore Roosevelt led the _________ party.
Bull Moose
Tea
Dixiecrat
Green
Libertarian
To Learning Objectives

22. Theodore Roosevelt led the _________ party.
LO 12.5
Theodore Roosevelt led the _________ party.
Bull Moose
Tea
Dixiecrat
Green
Libertarian
To Learning Objectives 22

23. Issue-oriented politics Importance of parties Competitiveness
Toward Reform: Two Parties Endure LO 12.6: Explain why the two major American political parties continue to endure.
Dealignment theory
Party affiliation
Issue-oriented politics
Importance of parties
Competitiveness
Historical trends
Mass political participation
Flexibility and pragmatism
Longevity
Strength
Inevitability
To Learning Objectives

24. What does dealignment theory state?
LO 12.6
What does dealignment theory state?
Both parties are not as “straight” as they used to be.
If two parties are compared to each other, one will always have an advantage.
There has been a general decline in party identification.
A third party always shifts the ideology of one of the two major parties.
Parties will never stay aligned as long as there is democracy.
To Learning Objectives

25. What does dealignment theory state?
LO 12.6
What does dealignment theory state?
Both parties are not as “straight” as they used to be.
If two parties are compared to each other, one will always have an advantage.
There has been a general decline in party identification.
A third party always shifts the ideology of one of the two major parties.
Parties will never stay aligned as long as there is democracy.
To Learning Objectives 25

26. Back
To Learning Objectives

27. Figure 12.1: How has the two-party system developed?
Back
To Learning Objectives

28. Figure 12.2: What does a realignment look like?
To Learning Objectives

29. Figure 12.3: How are political parties organized?
Back
To Learning Objectives

30. Figure 12.4: How much money do parties raise?
Back
To Learning Objectives

31. Figure 12.5: How have party unity scores changed?
Back
To Learning Objectives

32. Table 12.1: What do party platforms say?
To Learning Objectives

33. Table 12.2: Who identifies as a Democrat? A Republican?
Back
To Learning Objectives

34. Table 12.3: What are some of America’s major third parties?
Back
To Learning Objectives