1. Political Parties
Chapter 8

2. Political Parties Political parties run candidates for office.
Parties have 3 parts:
Party in the electorate
Party as an organization
Party in government

3. Functions of Parties Nominate Candidates Run Campaigns
Give Cues to Voters
Articulate Policies (Platforms)
Coordinate Policymaking

4. Functions of Parties
Parties sponsor grassroots mobilization, energizing members to support a candidate or proposal. (GOTV)
Parties are a linkage institution connecting citizens with government.

5. Party in the Electorate
Those registered for a party will likely vote for its candidates
Ticket-splitting:
Voting for candidates of different parties.
The result is often divided government.

6. Party Organizations Party Machines exchanged votes for favors
Patronage— when a patron in government gives political supporters benefits

7. Merit-Based Civil Service
Pendleton Civil Service Act led to a merit based civil service and diminished machines.
National parties are weak compared to state and local parties.
Anti-Nepotism law
1967 after Bobby Kennedy was AG

8. How Parties Target Voters
Tools:
Communication technology
Voter-data management systems
Campaign Consultants
Purposes:
Disseminate, control, and clarify political messages
Enhance outreach and mobilization
Raise Money

9. Parties and State Elections
Closed Primary: voters must be registered with their party in advance and can only vote for that party
Open Primary: independents and those registered to a party may vote in that party’s primary
Caucus: meeting of voters
Primaries and caucuses weaken national party organizations

10. National Party Organizations
Draft platform Run nominating conventions Relative to other countries, our national organizations are weak.

11. Why Parties Evolve Regional realignments Campaign finance laws
Changes in communication technology
Changes in data- management technology

12. Realignment Party Eras
When one party wins most elections because its coalition is bigger
Critical Election
An electoral “earthquake” where new issues and new coalitions emerge, beginning a new party era.

13. Realignment and Dealignment
Realignment is the shifting of groups in a coalition, usually before a critical election. Groups leave one party and support the other party.
Dealignment is the shift away from the two major parties and the rise in independent voters

14. Party Eras In American History
The First Party System,
Led by Alexander Hamilton, the Federalists supported a strong federal government and a national bank. The Federalist coalition included financial, commercial, and manufacturing interests.
Led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the Democratic-Republicans supported a limited federal government and opposed the national bank. The Democratic-Republican coalition included farmers, shopkeepers, laborers, and planters.
Jefferson defeated the Federalist president John Adams in This election marked the first time that a party in power peacefully gave up power after losing an election.
Party Eras In American History

15. Party Eras In American History
Jackson and the Democrats,
Led by Andrew Jackson, the Democratic Party supported voting rights for all white males, opposed the national bank, and used the spoils system to reward party loyalists. The Democratic coalition included debtors, frontier pioneers, and small farmers in the West and South.
Led by Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, the Whigs supported high tariffs and the national bank. The Whig coalition included a loose alliance of eastern bankers, merchants, industrialists, and owners of large plantations. The Whigs elected only two presidents: William Henry Harrison in 1840 and Zachary Taylor in 1848.
Party Eras In American History

16. Party Eras In American History
The Republican Era,
The issue of slavery dominated American politics during the 1850s. It split the Democrats and led to the demise of the Whigs.
Led by Abraham Lincoln, the Republican Party emerged as the most dynamic antislavery party. In the critical election of 1860, the Republicans elected Lincoln, thus becoming the only party in American history to make the transition from minor party to major party status.
Party Eras In American History

17. Party Eras In American History
The Republic Era, (cont.)
The Democrats survived the Civil War by becoming the dominant party in the South. The so-called Solid South remained a fixture of American politics for the next 100 years.
The election of 1896 marked a second critical election that transformed American politics. Led by William Jennings Bryan, a Democratic coalition of small Western farmers and emerging labor unions advocated free silver and regulations to control the railroads. Led by William McKinley, a Republican coalition of industrialists, financial monopolies, and small businesspeople backed the gold standard, high tariffs, and industrialization.
McKinley’s victory enabled the Republicans to remain America’s majority party until the Great Depression.
Party Eras In American History

18. Party Eras In American History
FDR and the New Deal Coalition,
The Great Depression marked an abrupt end in the era of Republican dominance. Led by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the revived Democrats advocated a program of relief, recovery, and reform known as the New Deal.
The New Deal coalition included the following groups:
Urban dwellers
Labor unions
Catholics and Jews
Southerners
African Americans
It is important to note that urban dwellers and African Americans had been important parts of the Republican coalition. Their movement into the Democratic Party marked a major party realignment that continues to the present day.
Party Eras In American History

19. Party Eras In American History
FDR and the New Deal Coalition, (cont.)
The New Deal coalition did not include Northern business leaders and wealthy industrialists.
Divided Government, 1968 to the Present
The election of Richard Nixon in 1968 marked the beginning of a period of Republican dominance in presidential politics. With the exception of the Carter presidency from 1977 to 1981, the Republicans held the White House from through 1993.

20. Party Eras In American History
Divided Government, 1968 to the Present (cont.)
Beginning with the election of Richard Nixon in 1968, the Republicans adopted a “Southern strategy” designed to break the Democratic Party’s long dominance in the South. Party realignment gradually occurred as Southern conservatives transferred their loyalty to the Republican Party. By the 2008 election, Republicans held the majority of Southern House and Senate seats.
Nixon’s election also marked the beginning of a new pattern of divided government. For the first time in the 20th century, a newly elected president moved into the White House while the opposition party controlled both houses of Congress.
Party Eras In American History

21. Party Eras In American History
Divided Government, 1968 to the Present (cont.)
The pattern of divided government has dominated American politics since Nixon’s election. From , the same party has controlled the presidency and both Houses of Congress for just 12 years.
The pattern of divided government has had a number of important consequences:
It has heightened partisanship and made it more difficult for moderates to negotiate compromises.
It has slowed both the confirmation and the legislative processes, thus creating gridlock.
It has increased public frustration, thus contributing to the decline in trust and confidence in government.
Party Eras In American History

22. Party Eras In American History
Divided Government, 1968 to the Present (cont.)
The last half century has witnessed a decline in the percentage of voters who identify themselves as Democrats or Republicans and a rise in the number of voters who identify themselves as independents. As a result, there has been a significant increase in the number of “split-ticket” voters who support candidates of different parties on the same ballot. This process of disengagement of people from political parties is called “party dealignment.”

23. Third Parties Rarely win elections
Bring new groups and people into politics
Major parties incorporate third party agendas into their platforms

24. Electoral Systems Winner-take-all system:
First Past the Post/Single Member District
Legislative seats awarded only to first place finishers.
Proportional Representation:
Legislative seats awarded based on percentage of votes received by party