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Chapter 4

Political Parties

Brown/Langenegger/Garcia/Biles/Rynbrandt/Reyna/Huerta, Practicing Texas Politics, 17th Edition. © 2020 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Role of Political Parties

Political party –

An organization with the purpose of controlling government by recruiting, nominating, and electing candidates to public office.

Two-party system in Texas/ U.S.

Election laws pose barriers to getting on the ballot

Plurality voting – the candidate who receives the most votes in the general elections wins

Multi-party systems

Proportional representation – allocates seats to parties based on the percentage of the vote received by a party during the election.

Political Ideology

Political ideology

Basic belief system that guides political theory and policy; conceptualized as falling along a conservative/ moderate/ liberal continuum

Party labels do not necessarily indicate ideology

State members of a party can hold different beliefs than members of the same party in another state.

Differences can be seen on the national level.

Conservatism

Advocates minimal intervention by government in economic matters and gives a high priority to reducing taxes and curbing public spending, while supporting a more active role of government in traditional social issues

Conservatives

Fiscal conservatives - priority to reduced taxing and spending

Social conservatives - stress the importance of their family values, including opposition to abortion and homosexuality

Liberalism

Favors government regulation of economy, aid unemployed, alleviate poverty, and guarantee equal rights, while seeing a limited government role in religion

Liberal

A person who advocates government support in social and economic matters and who favors political reforms that extend democracy, achieve a more equitable distribution of wealth, and protect individual freedoms and rights.

Democrats’ neoliberal ideology (Seen in some Texas Democrats)

Less government involvement in economy, more government involvement in social programs

Libertarianism

Advocates for a minimal government role in both economic matters and social issues

Libertarians in Texas

Separate party registered in the state, as well as, a faction of the Republican party

Tea Party

Combines some of both the pro-market libertarian Republicans and the social conservative Republicans

Electoral Trends

Texas politics today is more partisan, more competitive, and tied to national trends

Realignment: Occurs when there is a major change in the support of political parties.

The change in Texas from a solidly Democratic state (100 years starting with Reconstruction after the Civil War) to a solidly Republican state, is a regional realignment

Third Parties (Minor Parties)

A party other than the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. Sometimes called a ‘‘minor party’’ because of limited membership and voter support.

Achievement is to make the public aware of their issues

Libertarian Party

Platform – respect for individual rights, constitutionalism and the rule of law, personal responsibility, limited government

Green Party

Platform – social justice, ecological sustainability, nonviolence, political reform

Independents

No party affiliation

Lack fundraising abilities

Difficulty in gaining ballot access

Most independents lose elections

Third Parties Activity

View the video https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/486764/why-cant-third-parties-take-off/

Answer the questions on the handout

Third Party Failure

Possible reasons why 3rd parties don’t succeed

Political cultural consensus (most people agree on the foundations of our political order)

Voter identification (most have only known 2 parties)

Lack of proportional representation

Plurality elections

Ballot access is legally limited

Perception of failure contributes to weakness

Duverger’s Law

The electoral system used strongly conditions the type of party system that will result

An Overview of Texas Political History

Politics of the Republic of Texas

Houston and Lamar – dominated by strong political leaders instead of issues and public policy differences

Annexation and the Civil War Era

Democratic party dominance – Anglo settlers, slave holding, slave supporting, distrustful of federal gov, convinced of legitimacy of state sovereignty

Reconstruction – Period bonded the South together as a unit against Republicans, resentment toward the rest of the nation and the party that dominated

The Evolution of Political Parties in Texas

The One-Party Democratic Era in Texas

Started in 1874 and lasted until the 1960s

Several minor party movements failed

Democratic Party adopted some of their platforms

Large landowners and businesses controlled the state Democratic Party and successfully destroyed other movements

Infighting increasingly divided the party

The conservative element eventually found more in common with religious groups and those newly settled in Texas for economic reasons

Until the late1960s, TX politics revolved around personality and economic issues

The Beginning of Change

1952 and 1956 conservative backlash against the New Deal/ Fair Deal national Democratic party

Texans supported Republican presidential candidates while retaining Democratic Party state office dominance

The Election of John Tower

1960 Lyndon Johnson, Democrat, on presidential ticket

Senate seat vacated and, in 1961, won by Republican John Tower. He was the first Republican statewide officeholder since 1870s

Beginning of the One Party Republican Era

The Move Toward Parity with the Democrats

By 1994, Republicans made gains in U.S. Senate and statewide offices

Conservative Anglo Democrats switched their allegiance to Republicans

Bush narrowly defeated Gore for presidency in 2000

The One Party-Republican Era

After 2000, Republicans held all statewide offices and were the majority in the Texas House and Senate

Texas Political History - the Future

2016 and Beyond

Democrats trying to become competitive to align with demographic changes in state

Democrats need at least 35% of white vote to be competitive

Democratic wins in statewide elections require mobilization of Latino voters

Younger Texans are more likely to identify as Democrats, even young white voters

Texas Counties won by Hillary Clinton (in blue) and by Donald Trump (in red) in the 2016 Presidential Election

Texas Political History – 2018 Election

2018 Election Offers Texas Democrats Electoral Hope

Picked up 12 seats in Texas House

Picked up 2 U.S. House G O P seats (Houston & Dallas area)

Democrat Beto O’Rourke nearly defeated (51% to 48%) Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz

Party Structure by Level

Parties exist on four levels

National

State

County

Precinct

Organized as a stratarchy

Power diffused among and within levels of a party organization

Party Structure – Permanent and Temporary

Permanent Party Organization

The Precinct Chair

The County Chair

The County Executive Committee

The State Executive Committee

The State Party Chair

Temporary Party Organization

Meetings or caucuses that occur every two years

Party Conventions

County and district conventions

State convention

Held every 2 years

Elects state party officers

In presidential years, also elects electors who will serve in the Electoral College

In TX, electors of the party winning the popular vote in the state meet in Austin in the senate chamber

National convention

Primary versus Caucus

Primary - voters go to their polling place and cast a ballot for the candidate they prefer; delegates are awarded based on the proportion of the popular vote each candidate receives

Caucus – a town hall-style meeting of party members, delegates are distributed based on the number of supporters for each candidate in attendance

The caucus system harkens back to the era of labor-intensive politics, requiring an organization of active volunteers to produce results