POLITICAL PARTIES

1
POLITICAL PARTIES

• Group of individuals, often having some measure
  of ideological agreement, who organize to win
  elections, operate government, and determine
  public policy
• Team of men and women seeking to control the
  governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly
  constituted election --Dahl

2
Three-Headed Giant Different Aspects of the
Party

• Party in the electorate (Label)
• Certain conception in the minds of the voters
• Membership not required
• Number of independents rising a lot, and strong
  party ID is declining a little.
• Split-ticket voting

3
Three-Headed Giant Different Aspects of the
Party

• Organization
• Recruit and campaign
• Provide continuity between elections
• State party system
• Closed primaries only people who have registered
  in advance
• Open primaries allow voters to decide on
  election day
• Blanket primaries voters are allowed to select
  Democrats and Republicans
• Political Machines and patronage

4
Political Machines

• Patronage system which recruits members using
  money, political jobs, other political favors
• Political leader secures and retains the loyalty
  of his supporters and followers by rewarding them
  with public goods, such as official posts.
• Patron politician Client citizen wanting
  reward
• "WANTED -- A GOVERNMENT CLERKSHIP at a salary of
  not less than 1,000 per annum. Will give 100 to
  any one securing me such a position.
• Garfield assassinated by disappointed office
  seeker (Charles Guiteau)

5
Political Machines

• The Pendleton Act (1883) (under Chester Arthur)
• classified certain jobs and removed them from the
  patronage ranks
• set up a Civil Service Commission to administer a
  system based on merit rather than political
  connections
• Created a Civil Service Commission, a
  three-member, nonpartisan board to create and
  administer competitive examinations for
  applicants to low-level federal jobs
• Stopped the practice of assessing federal workers
  a portion of their salary for the benefit of the
  political party that appointed them
• Granted the president broad powers to apply civil
  service reform procedures to other
  classifications of federal workers.

6
Political Machines

• Strong leadership control
• Tended towards corruption
• Hatch Act (1939) Illegal for federal employees
  to get involved formally with political campaigns
• Federal employees cant serve as party officers,
  solicit campaign funds, run for a partisan
  office, work on campaigns, endorse partisan
  candidates, take voters to polls, count votes.
  Can only vote and make contributions
• As education increased and legislation passed,
  machines have declined in importance

7
Three-Headed Giant Different Aspects of the
Party

• Party in Government
• Set of leaders who try to control political
  agenda
• Spokespersons and symbols for the party

8
Party Functions

• Select candidates almost no one above the local
  level (and often not there) gets elected to
  public office without winning a partys
  endorsement
• Run campaigns
• Present an image to voters
• Articulate and advocate policies
• Coordinate policymaking

9
Downs Model

• Voters want to maximize the chance that policies
  they favor will be adopted by the government
• Parties want to win office
• Therefore, parties select positions that are
  widely favored and may go to great lengths to win
  (kiss babies, negative advertising, etc.)
• Median voter model

10
Why are American political parties weak? Britain
vs. USA

• Strong party loyalty
• Centralized
• Nominated by party leaders
• Majority party selects executive (prime minister)
• Parliamentary system

• Weak party loyalty
• Decentralized
• Primary elections
• Separate Presidential election
• Separation of powers

11
Party identification and trends

• No formal "membership" in American parties
• Over the past 25 years a decline of both parties
  and the increasing percentage Independents
  (mostly at the expense of the Democrats)
• Almost every major social group (except African
  American voters) has moved toward a position of
  increased independence
• African Americans have moved even more solidly
  into the Democratic party (currently only 5
  percent of African Americans identify themselves
  as Republicans).
• Traditionally, much of the Republican support has
  been the wealthy business class.

12
Party identification and trends

• Party identification remains strongly linked to
  the voter's choice, but ticket-splitting (voting
  with one party for one office and another for
  other offices) is near an all-time high.
• Those who still identify with a party are no
  longer as loyal in the voting booth as they once
  were.
• As party identification increases, there is a
  greater interest in elections, higher voter
  turnout, and more straight-ticket voting.
• Recent trends often results in divided government
  (often with Republican President and Democratic
  control of Congress)

13
Early views of parties

• Madison factions
• Washingtons Farewell address the baneful
  effects of the Spirit of Party
• Jefferson If I could not go to heaven but with
  a party, I would not go there at all
• Ben Franklin infinite mutual abuse of parties,
  tearing to pieces the best of characters

14
DEVELOPMENT OF PARTY SYSTEM
15
Founding (1789 1820s)

• Republicans (Anti-Federalists),
  Democrat-Republicans, or Jeffersonians
• Jefferson, Madison, Monroe
• Rural support, popular in the South
• Purpose defeat Adams and the Federalists
• Eventually torn apart by factionalism

• Federalists
• Hamilton, Adams
• Washington needed a coalition of factions to get
  legislation passed by Congress
• Domestic policy national bank
• Foreign policy soft on Britain
• Support by capitalists
• Quickly faded

16
Jacksonian (1828 1856) Birth of national
party system

• Democratic-Republican became known as Democratic
  party
• Westerners, Southerners, new immigrants, and
  settled Americans
• Whigs opposed Jackson Democrats
• Northern industrialists and Southern plantation
  owners
• United by a common enemy (Democrats) more than by
  common ground

17
Jacksonian (1828 1856) Birth of national
party system

• Party convention replaces caucus
• Caucus (members of Congress who nominate
  presidential candidate) system loses legitimacy
  after 1824 candidate got third place out of four
  candidates
• Great increase in voting participation
• Electors were selected by popular vote rather
  than by state legislators
• Increased local control

18
Two Republican Eras (1860-1932) North South
Division (1860-1896)

• The Republican Party begins as a third party
• Slavery split both parties
• Union and anti-slavery supporters became
  Republicans in late 1850s
• Confederate supporters or anti-Civil war became
  Democrats

19
Two Republican Eras (1860-1928) East-West
Division (1896-1932)

• Bryan, a Democrat, alienated northeastern Dems
  and attracted voters from South and Midwest, West
  (farmers, small towns, low tariffs, rural
  interests, fundamentalists protestants) with a
  populist platform
• Free silver advocate this would devalue money
  and help debtors since there was more silver than
  gold
• Republicans gold standard, industry, business,
  tariffs, industrialization, banks, high
  tariffs,industrial working class (Catholics and
  Lutherans who did not like fundamentalists, and
  hostility toward liquor and immigrants)

20
Divisions within the parties

• At the end of the 19th Century, two different
  groups begin to emerge within the two parties,
  but ESPECIALLY in the Republican Party
• Stalwarts- the Old Guard of the party.
• Party machinery, party loyalty, patronage,
  WINNING is the primary interest.
• Mugwumps (Progressives)- the reformers
• Oppose emphasis on patronage, wanted to see the
  party take unpopular positions on issues like
  free trade, advocacy and articulation of issues,
  PRINCIPLE is the main interest.

21
The Era of Reform

• Progressives realize that to have any power, they
  have to attack partisanship itself.
• Favored primary elections over nominating
  conventions
• Favored Nonpartisan elections at city level
• Wanted strict voter registration requirements to
  reduce fraud
• Civil service reform
• In California, direct primary adopted in
  1910-1911, as well as initiative and referendum

22
New Deal Coalition (1932-1964)

• Urban dwellers big cities (Chicago and
  Philadelphia) had been Republicans before
• Labor Unions FDR first president to endorse
  unions
• Catholics and Jewish people
• The poor low turnout, but supported FDR and
  successors
• Southerners white Southerners maintained loyalty
  from before Civil War through New Deal (going to
  change in 1948.- Dixiecrats to Republicans)
• African-Americans Republicans lost this
  constituency
• Intellectuals few but provided many ideas for
  New Deal

23
New Deal Coalition (1932-1964)

• JFK
• Johnsons Great Society and War on Poverty

24
Divided Government (1968- Present)

• Nixon (1968) first time in 20th century that a
  newly elected president did not have his party in
  control of both houses of Congress
• Happened again under Reagan and Bush
• Clinton started out with both houses but lost
  that in 1994
• Both houses and the presidency controlled by same
  party houses for only 9.3 years form 1969 to 2005
• Party dealignment moving away from both parties

25
Critical (Realigning) periods

• 1800- Jeffersonians defeat the Federalists
• 1828- Rise of Jacksonian Democrats
• 1860- Whigs collapse and Republicans under
  Lincoln take power
• 1896- Republicans defeat William Jennings Bryan
  and Populists/Democrats
• 1932- New Deal Coalition and FDR

26
Decline of the Party

• Proportion of people voting a split ticket
  increased until around 1980, and has slowly
  declined since, but is still higher than in the
  1950s.
• Key in this change is the switch to the
  office-bloc (Massachusetts) ballot from the
  party-column (Indiana) ballot.
• Ticket splitting leads to DIVIDED GOVERNMENT.
  (White House and Congress are controlled by
  different parties.)

27
National Party Structure

• National Convention nominates president every
  four years
• National Committee
• state delegates who meet between elections
• Select time and place of next national convention
• Issues a call for the convention determines
  number of delegates for each state and the rules
  for how the delegates will be chosen
• Congressional Campaign Committee help incumbent
  or new legislators
• National Chairman day-to-day party duties,
  elected by CCC

28
1. National Convention

• Selects the presidential candidate
• Formula for number and distribution of delegates
• Reforms decreased power of party leaders
• Democrat reforms toward more intraparty equity

29
What happens at a typical national convention?

• First Day Keynote speechmelds the past, present
  and future of the party with its goals and
  nominee(s)
• Second Day centers on party platform
• Drafted prior to convention by a committee
  consisting of proponents of each candidate (in
  proportion to their strength)
• If over 20 of committee disagrees on platform,
  they can bring an alternative minority plank to
  the convention floor for debate
• Third Day formally nominate candidate for
  president
• One major speech about candidate and then others
  also speak about him/her
• End of evening states cast their ballots for the
  president
• Usually, home state casts deciding number
• Vice President chosen, but this is now a formality

30
2. National Committee

• State delegates who meet between elections (can
  include governors, members of Congress, other
  party officials, and others)
• Select time and place of next national convention
• Issues a call for the convention determines
  number of delegates for each state and the rules
  for how the delegates will be chosen.

31
Formulas for determining number of delegates

• Democrats should a larger share of delegates
  come from south (solidly Democrat in the past) or
  the north and west (more liberal or larger
  states)
• Large states are rewarded
• Vote each state cast in the past and number of
  electoral votes of each state
• Republicans (conservative) Midwest or (liberal
  East)
• Loyal states are rewarded
• Number of representatives in Congress and if the
  state in past elections votes for the Republican
  president elected to the Senate, the House,and
  the governorship

32
How are delegates chosen?

• Democrats (since 1972)
• Tried to weaken local party leader control
• Increase proportion of women, young people,
  African-Americans, and Native-Americans
• As of 1988, Party leaders and 80 of elected
  officials(senators, house of representatives,
  governors) given delegate seats (superdelegates)
• Superdelegates do not have to pledge to a
  candidate
• Represent leftist wing of the liberal middle
  class
• Republicans represent more conservative wing of
  the traditional middle class (more closely
  represents most citizens)

33
3. Congressional Campaign Committee

• help incumbent or new legislators running for
  office

34
4. National Chairman

• Day-to-day party duties
• Direct mailings
• Public opinion polls
• Fund raising
• advertising
• Elected by national committee

35
STATE AND LOCAL LEVEL DIFFERENT TYPES OF
POLITICAL PARTIES

• Where do candidates get their support?

36
Ideological Parties

• Values principles above all else
• Does not rely on money incentives
• Contentious and Factional
• Third parties
• Socialist/Socialist Workers
• Libertarians
• Right-to-life
• Christian Coalition (within Republican party)

37
Solidary Groups

• People who get together because of camaraderie
  and love of politics
• Members like to be in the know
• Former political machines, sometimes
• Not corrupt or inflexible
• Not very hard working

38
Sponsored Parties

• Another organization, such as a union, creates or
  sponsors a political party
• Not very common

39
Personal Following

• Candidate must have an appealing personality, a
  lot of friends, or a big bank account
• Kennedy dynasty
• Bush family

40
Conclusion regarding parties

• Only a few (8) states have traditional
  partieshierarchical and based on material
  incentives, and capable of influencing who gets
  nominated (mostly in Northeast )
• Factional, traditional parties (5)
• Weak party system of solidary clubs, personal
  followings, ideological groups and sponsored
  parties for all the rest

41
Why are there only two parties?

• Single member district, plurality system
• Duvergers law
• Cooptation Major parties take the ideas of
  third parties and incorporate them into their
  platform
• Umbrella Partyall encompassing

42
Plurality vs Proportional Representation

• First past the post
• Winner take all
• Most votes
• Broad-based parties
• Electoral College

• Majority
• Runoff elections
• Narrow parties

43
Example

• Proportional Rep
• Party A 20
• Party B 30
• Party C 40
• Party D 10
• Each party of seats

• Plurality
• Party A 20
• Party B 30
• Party C 40
• Party D 10
• Party C wins all the seats

44
Third Parties

• Ideological a comprehensive view of society that
  is radically different from established parties
• Socialist, Communist, Libertarian
• Single-Issue single policy and avoiding others
• Free soil, Know-nothing, Prohibition
• Economic Protest protesting depressed economic
  conditions
• Usually farmers in particular regions
• Disappears when problems improve
• Factional Parties split in major party
• Bull Moose, States Rights (Dixiecrats), American
  Independent, Reform Party (Perot)