Chapter9PoliticalParties.pptxChapter 9: Political Parties
American National Government
PL-102
Instructor Walter Pearn
Chapter Objectives
Describe political parties and what they do.
Differentiate political parties from interest groups.
Explain how U.S. political parties formed.
Describe the effects of winner-take-all elections.
Compare plurality and proportional representation.
Describe the institutional, legal, and social forces. that limit the number of parties.
Discuss the concepts of party alignment and realignment.
Chapter Objectives
Differentiate between the party in the electorate and the party organization.
Discuss the importance of voting in a political party organization.
Describe party organization at the county, state, and national levels.
Compare the perspectives of the party in government and the party in the electorate.
Discuss the problems and benefits of divided government
Define party polarization.
List the main explanations for partisan polarization.
Explain the implications of partisan polarization.
However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
GEORGE WASHINGTON, Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796
Political Parties
A political party is a type of political organization.
It typically seeks to influence, direct, or entirely perform government policy; usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office.
Parties participate in electoral campaigns, awareness outreach, or protest actions.
Parties often espouse an ideology or vision, expressed in a party program, bolstered by a written platform with specific goals, forming a coalition among disparate interests.
Functions of Political Parties
Recruitment and selection of leaders
The representation and integration of interest groups
Control the direction of government
They do not always have full control of government.
Example: today our President is a Democrat, the Senate is 53 (D), 2(I), 45 (R). The House of Representatives 233(R), 200 (D) and 2 vacant.
Parties Provide Various Services
Help educate voters on current issues
Simplify the choices voters face on election day
Do what voters can not do themselves:
From the totality of interests and issues in politics they choose the agenda for formal public disclosure.
Protect the environment (Democrat)
America’s Natural Resources: Energy, Agriculture and the Environment (Republican)
Two-Party System
A political system in which only the candidates of two major political parties have any real chance of being elected to office.
George Washington was the Electoral Colleges unanimous choice for President
During President Washington’s second term Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans became important political forces.
2020 Democratic Party Plat Form
PROTECTING AMERICANS AND RECOVERING FROM THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
BUILDING A STRONGER, FAIRER ECONOMY
ACHIEVING UNIVERSAL, AFFORDABLE, QUALITY HEALTH CARE
PROTECTING COMMUNITIES AND BUILDING TRUST BY REFORMING OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
COMBATING THE CLIMATE CRISIS AND PURSUING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
RESTORING AND STRENGTHENING OUR DEMOCRACY
CREATING A 21ST CENTURY IMMIGRATION SYSTEM
PROVIDING A WORLD-CLASS EDUCATION IN EVERY ZIP CODE
2020 Republican Party Platform
Restoring the American Dream
A Rebirth of Constitutional Government
America’s Natural Resources: Agriculture, Energy, and the Environment
Government Reform
Great American Families, Education, Healthcare, and Criminal Justice
America Resurgent
Political Machines
Are organizations that secured votes for the party’s candidates or supported the party in other ways. Perhaps more importantly, this election-focused organization also sought to maintain power by creating a broader coalition and thereby expanding the range of issues upon which the party was constructed.
Personal Politics/Third Parties
The Democratic Party emphasized personal politics, which focused on building direct relationships with voters rather than on promoting specific issues.
Political parties that are formed as alternatives to the Republican and Democratic parties are known as third parties.
Multiparty System
Political system in which there are more than two major political parties.
Institutional theory- holds that the nations election system, especially the use of single-member districts in choosing members of Congress and of state and local legislatures create a two-party system.
Proportional Representation (PR)- is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received.
Party Competition
Political power
Ability to shape and control the content and direction of public policy
Capacity to influence or determine official governmental decision making and action on questions of public policy.
Nature of American Political Parties
The most salient characteristic of the American political party system is that it is essentially a two-party system.
The system has other notable characteristics. One of these is that the parties are highly decentralized, that is, the national parties have historically been weak and the state parties are independent of national control.
Within the states, the county and local parties have great influence. Another significant characteristic of the parties is that they are coalitions.
Different segments of the population have traditionally supported one or the other major political party candidates.
Nature of American Political Parties
For example, the Republicans attract the loyalty of business executives and small-business owners, farmers, people living in rural areas, and people who attend church regularly.
African Americans, Jews, union members, and people with lower levels of education and income tend to support the Democratic Party.
Related to this characteristic is ideological diversity.
To win elections and gain power, the parties must be able to shape their programs in such a way as to appeal to individuals and groups with a wide range of views on issues of public policy.
Ideological diversity tends to produce moderation. Parties attempt to avoid extreme positions that will alienate many voters.
Minor Parties
Numerous minor parties have nominated candidates for national, state, and local public offices at one time or another, but rarely have those candidates won elections.
Most minor parties exist primarily to oppose the policies and programs of the two major parties and to advance their own ideologies.
Minor parties are usually organized around a particular political ideology, such as socialism, or a specific issue, such as slavery or prohibition.
Minor Parties
Most third parties disappear soon after contesting one or two national elections.
Only a few have nominated candidates for more than one national election, and overall, the influence of third-party candidates in presidential elections has been limited.
The Structure of Political Parties
Political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution.
The rules for their organization and structure are found in state law and in party rules.
Even though on paper the national party organization resembles a pyramid, with the national party organizations at the top and the local units at the base, in reality their relationships are much more complex.
State and local party organizations are largely independent of the national parties.
The National Parties
The national parties are composed of the national convention, the national committee, and the national chair.
In theory, the national convention is the top national authority, but in reality the national convention has very few powers.
The National Parties
It meets every four years to nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates, and it adopts party rules and a party platform, but it has no voice in the selection of candidates for congressional, state, or local office, nor can it force candidates to support its platform.
The National Parties
The national committee is the executive organ of the party and is headed by the national chair.
It decides where and when to hold the next party convention, and it raises campaign funds. In recent years, the power of the national committees has gradually increased as they have become a major fund-raiser and source of campaign financing for state and local party organizations.
The State and Local Parties
In most states, party organizations play an influential role in politics.
They are active in fund-raising, mobilization of voters, public opinion polling, issue development, recruiting candidates to run for office, and providing money and expertise to party candidates.
Infusions of money from the national party organizations are contributing to a revival today of the state parties.
The most important local party organization in most states is the county committee.
The State and Local Parties
The committee is headed by the county chairperson, who is generally elected by the committee’s members.
Below the county committee there are also city, township, ward, and precinct committees, which vary considerably in size and importance.
Like other party committees, they focus their efforts on campaigns and elections.
The Structure of Political Parties
Typical pyramid of state party organization
Decentralization of Party Power
The real power of political parties rests with state and local party organizations.
The national parties only nominate two candidates for public office.
All other candidates for public office are chosen at the state and local level.
Decentralization of Party Power
Even there, the parties do not have the power they once had.
The extension of the civil service program, the growth of government social welfare programs, and the spread of economic prosperity after World War II all contributed to the decline of urban political machines.
Today, most local party organizations operate somewhere between the extremes of political machines and disorganization.
Parties and Voters: The decline of Party Identification
The term party identification refers to the loyalty of voters to a particular party.
In recent decades, there has been an increase in the number of people who are registered to vote but who do not identify with any political party.
The decline in party identification is true of Americans of all ages, but it is especially striking among younger voters.
New voters are increasingly likely to enter the electorate with no party ties.
Independent voters split their ticket more often than do those who identify with one of the major political parties.
These voters also tend to be less politically active, less knowledgeable, and less likely to vote than people who identify with a political party.
Parties and Voters: The decline of Party Identification
The decrease in the number of people who identify with a political party may be explained by either one of two prevailing theories.
The realignment theory asserts that voters are shifting their loyalties from one party to another and that previous party coalitions will give rise to new alignments.
On the other hand, the dealignment theory contends that political parties have lost many of their traditional functions and in the future will play only a minimal political role.
Some had argued that the elections of 2006 and 2008 are evidence of a realignment of voters in favor of the Democratic Party.
However, the dramatic losses by Democrats in the 2010 congressional elections quickly put an end to this speculation.
Parties and Voters: The decline of Party Identification
One potential consequence of the decline of political parties in the United States is the problem of accountability.
When parties diminish in importance, voters may have difficulty placing the blame for inadequate policies on one team of leaders and replacing them with a team from the opposing party.
The Party in The Legislature
Unlike a parliamentary system where the major political parties are almost always united either for or against any major issue that comes to a vote in the legislature, party leaders in the American system have very little control over elected party members.
In the legislature, a party can exercise modest sanctions over members—such as denying a legislator a desired seat on an important congressional committee—but those sanctions are infrequently used.
Due to the direct primary, parties have little say in the nomination of candidates for Congress.
The Party in The Legislature
At the start of each Congress, the majority party elects the Speaker of the House and the president pro tem of the Senate.
This results in the party’s decline of power over its members.
A president seeking to enact a legislative program must sometimes turn to members of the opposition party to obtain a majority in favor of the legislation.
The Party in The Legislature
None of this is to say that party unity does not exist in Congress.
Party unit votes—when a majority of the members of one party vote together on an issue and the majority of the members of the other party vote in opposition—have been very common in recent decades.
The influence of the party is apparent as legislators usually try to support their party’s program even when doing so means going against the wishes of their constituents or their own feelings.
Reform or Status Quo
The American two-party system has been criticized for not offering voters a clear choice, since the major-party candidates, who are both usually moderates, are more similar than they are different.
Also, it is impossible to enforce a candidate’s campaign promises.
There have been proposals for reform, but the parties generally ignore them.
The parties’ individual strengths continue to decline in importance, and some observers have even described political parties as “endangered species.”
Given the important role political parties play in organizing and maintaining the American political system, this may be a cause for concern.
Divided Government
Divided government occurs when one or more houses of the legislature are controlled by the party in opposition to the executive.
Divided government can pose considerable difficulties for both the operations of the party and the government.
Divided government can also be a threat to government operations, although its full impact remains unclear.
Bipartisanship
Is agreement or cooperation between two political parties that usually oppose each other's policies.
Many pieces of legislation were passed in the 1960s and 1970s with reasonably high levels of support from both parties.
1964 Civil Rights Act: Having broken the filibuster, the Senate voted 73-27 in favor of the bill, and Johnson signed it into law on July 2, 1964. “It is an important gain, but I think we just delivered the South to the Republican Party for a long time to come,” Johnson, a Democrat, purportedly told an aide later that day in a prediction that would largely come true.
Moderates/Party Polarization
As political moderates, or individuals with ideologies in the middle of the ideological spectrum, leave the political parties at all levels, the parties have grown farther apart ideologically.
Party polarization in government is when Republicans and Democrats have become increasingly dissimilar from one another.
In the party-in-government, this means fewer members of Congress have mixed voting records; instead, they vote far more consistently on issues and are far more likely to side with their party leadership.
Gerrymandering
According to the gerrymandering thesis, the more moderate or heterogeneous a voting district, the more moderate the politician’s behavior once in office.
Taking extreme or one-sided positions on many issues would be hazardous for a member who needs to build a diverse electoral coalition.
If the district has been drawn to favor a particular group, it now is necessary for the elected official to serve only the portion of the constituency that dominates.
Redistricting/Reappointment
There has always been an incentive for legislative bodies to draw districts in such a way that sitting legislators have the best chance of keeping their jobs.
Changes in law and technology have transformed gerrymandering from a crude art into a science.
The first advance came with the introduction of the “one-person-one-vote” principle by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1962.
Before then, it was common for many states to practice redistricting, or redrawing of their electoral maps, only if they gained or lost seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
This can happen once every ten years as a result of a constitutionally mandated reapportionment process, in which the number of House seats given to each state is adjusted to account for population changes.
Safe Seats
Safe Seats were created so members of their party could be assured of winning by a comfortable margin.
The basic rule of thumb was that designers sought to draw districts in which their preferred party had a 55 percent or better chance of winning a given district, regardless of which candidate the party nominated.
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