1. CHAPTER 7
POLITICAL PARTIES

2. This chapter provides a fairly detailed exploration of political parties, with emphasis on the two party system that has evolved in the United States.

3. Role of A Political Party
A party is a group that seeks to elect candidates to public office by supplying them with a label.
Arenas
A label in the minds of the voters
Set of leaders in government
Organization for recruiting and campaigning

4. Reasons for differences from European parties
Federal system decentralizes power
Early on, most people with political jobs worked for state and local government.
National parties were coalitions of local parties.
As political power becomes more centralized, parties become weaker still
Parties closely regulated by state and federal laws
Candidates chosen through primaries, not by party leaders
President elected separately from Congress

5. Decline in Party Identification, 1952-2000.

6. Cleavages and Continuity in the Two Party System

7. 1. Founding
2. Andrew Jackson
3. Whigs
4. Progressives and the Era of Reform
A. Primary Elections
B. Non Partisan Elections at the local level
C. Strict Voter Registration Rules
D. Civil Service Reform
E. Initiative, Referendum and Recall

8. Occurrences: change in issues
1800: Jeffersonians defeated Federalists
1828: Jacksonian Democrats came to power
1860: Whigs collapsed; Republicans won
1896: Republicans defeated Bryan
1932: FDR Democrats came to power

9. 1972-1988: shift in presidential voting patterns in the South
Fewer Democrats, more Republicans, more independents
Independents vote Republican
Now close to fifty-fifty Democratic, Republican
Party dealignment, not realignment

12. Party Structure Today
1. Nation convention ultimate power, nominates presidential candidate.
2. National committee composed of delegates from state manages affairs between conventions.
3. Congressional campaign committees.
4. National chair manages daily work.

13. The Democrats have evolved into a factional party emphasizing the mobilization and conciliation of party activists. (Pluralism). The Republican party has become a bureaucratic party devoted to winning elections by focusing on raising money and providing consulting services to its candidates.

14. Some of the above changed in 1992 and 1994, the Democrats became adopting direct mail and sophisticated focus groups and polling to insure more electable candidates. Republican have become more isolated on the ideological extreme be dominated by the Christian Coalition. Is it better to win or be ideologically pure?

15. Consequence of reforms
Parties represent different set of upper-middle-class voters
Republicans represent traditional middle class
Democrats represent the "new class"
Democrats hurt because the traditional middle class closer in opinions to most citizens

16. State and Local Party Organizations
1. The Machine
2. Ideological Party
3. Solidary Groups
4. Sponsored Parties
5. Personal followings

17. The machine Recruitment via tangible incentives
High degree of leadership control
Abuses
Gradually controlled by reforms
But machines continued
Both self-serving and public regarding
Winning above all else

18. Ideological parties Principle above all else
Usually outside Democrats and Republicans
But some local reform clubs
Reform clubs replaced by social movements

19. Solidary groups Most common form of party organization
Members motivated by solidary incentives
Advantage: neither corrupt nor inflexible
Disadvantage: not very hard working

20. Sponsored parties Created or sustained by another organization
Example: Detroit Democrats controlled by UAW
Not very common

21. Personal following Examples: Kennedys, Curley, Talmadges, Longs
Viability today affected by TV and radio
Advantage: vote for the person
Disadvantage: takes time to know the person

22. U.S. Political Parties The two-party system Rarity among nations today
Evenly balanced nationally, not locally
Why such a permanent feature?
Electoral system: winner-take-all and plurality system
Opinions of voters: two broad coalitions

23. American Parties As Broad Coalitions
1. Plurality, winner take all system, especially in the electoral college.
2. Voters agree on enough issues to make broad coalitions possible, no real differences like organization of the economy, prerogatives of the monarchy, and the role of the church.

24. Types of Minor Parties
1. Ideological parties
2. One issue parties
3. Economic protest parties
4. Factional parties

25. Examples
Ideological parties: comprehensive, radical view; most enduring Examples: Socialist, Communist, Libertarian
One-issue parties: address one concern, avoid others Examples: Free Soil, Know-Nothing, Prohibition
Economic protest parties: regional, oppose depressions Examples: Greenback, Populist
Factional parties: from split in a major party Examples: Bull Moose, Henry Wallace, American Independent

26. Are there Significant Differences - Primarily Between Activists, not between voters.
Nominating A President
1. Are the delegates representative of the voters?
2. Who Votes in Primaries?

27. Are the delegates representative of the voters?
Democratic delegates much more liberal
Republican delegates much more conservative

28. Who votes in primaries? Primaries now more numerous and more decisive
Stevenson and Humphrey never entered a primary
By 1992: forty primaries and twenty caucuses
Little ideological difference between primary voters and rank-and-file party voters

29. Caucus Meeting of party followers at which delegates are picked
Only most-dedicated partisans attend
Often choose most ideological candidate: Jackson, Robertson in 1988

30. Parties versus voters
Democrats: win congressional elections but lose presidential contests
Candidates are out of step with average voters on social and tax issues
So are delegates, and there's a connection
Republicans had the same problem with Goldwater (1964)
Rank-and-file Democrats and Republicans differ on many political issues, but the differences are usually small
Delegates from two parties differ widely on these same issues

31. Formula for winning president
Nominate candidates with views closer to the average citizen (e.g., 1996 election)
Fight campaign over issues agreed on by delegates and voters (e.g., 1992 election)

32. SELF TEST

33. For more information about this topic, link to the Metropolitan Community College Political Science Web Site