American Gov't - week 5 Essay question (SEE ATTACHED FILES TO COMPLETE)

I What Are Political Parties?

A. Political parties are generally defined as organizations that seek to control

government by recruiting, nominating, and electing their members to public

office.

II Party Systems Interpretation of American History

A. American political history can be viewed as a succession of electoral eras

often referred to as party systems.

1. Within each era elections are relatively similar - with certain social and

economic groups consistently supporting one party or another.

2. The eras themselves are separated by one or more critical or realigning

elections that alter the existing electoral alignment, often in response to

some crisis.

A. Critical elections mark the emergence of a new, lasting alignment

of partisan support within the electorate.

B. Critical elections are characterized by an increase in political

participation, large blocks of voters switching party affiliation, and

are generally preceded by the arrival of a third party.

C. Historians and political scientists have come to use the critical

realignment dates of 1828, 1860, 1896, and 1932 as landmarks in

American history; marking the destruction of one major party

system and the creation of another.

III Six Party Systems in American History

A. The First Party System - Federalists vs. Democratic-Republicans

(1796-1824)

1. The first party system was basically between the Federalists (mostly those

located in New England) who supported commercial interests and favored

an expansive national government and the Democratic-Republicans

(mostly located in the South and West) who advocated agricultural

interests.

2. The Federalist Party gradually disappeared tainted by its aristocratic

tendencies and pro-British sympathies during the War of 1812.

B. The Second Party System - Democrats vs. Whigs (1828-1856)

1. The arrival of the Whigs. The Democrats, under Andrew Jackson,

emphasize the common person and popular participation. In fact, turnout

triples as the Democrats pushed to overturn property qualifications.

2. In contrast with the first party system, these parties were well organized,

with sharply contrasting programs tied to a highly partisan electorate.

C. The Third Party System - Democrats vs. Republicans (1860 - 1892)

1. By 1860, the Whigs had disappeared and the Republican party had

emerged. They were largely composed of abolitionists and Northern

Democrats who left the party to oppose slavery.

2. Lincoln won the vote with almost no support from the South, marking the

beginning of regional voting.

3. Once the Civil War was over, the Republicans and Democrats found

themselves roughly balanced in national politics. Democrats were

primarily a white Southern party, with substantial support from Catholics

and the working class. Republicans became a party of business, the

middle class, and newly enfranchised African Americans.

D. The Fourth Party System - Democrats vs. Republicans (1896-1928)

1. The critical election of 1896 brought about a period of Republican

dominance. Democrats were reduced to their base in the South, while

Republicans dominated the North and West.

E. The Fifth Party System (1932-64) - Democratic dominance

1. The New Deal Coalition - alliance of working class ethnic groups,

Catholics, urban dwellers, Jews, racial minorities, and the South was the

basis of the Democratic party during this period.

2. Republicans increasingly became the party of business and the affluent.

F. The Sixth Party System (1968 to the present) (Divided Government)

1. 1968 to 1992 is characterized by Republican control of the executive and

Democratic control of Congress. During the 1990s, Democrats regain

control of the White House but eventually lost Congress. From 2000-

2008, the Republicans maintained control of the executive but lost control

of the legislative branch after the 2006 elections. Both Trump and Obama

had unified control during their first two years but lost the House after

their first midterm election cycle.

IV Why a Two-Party System?

A. The Media

1. Some see a bias in the media favoring the major parties. Democratic and

Republic candidates, for instance, are covered routinely by the evening

news. Third party candidates are given little, if any, coverage. Ross Perot

was able to challenge the major party candidates, in large part, because he

was wealthy enough to buy advertising time.

2. The media, of course, argues that it does not cover third parties because

they are not serious challengers and hence, not newsworthy. Third parties

claim they are caught in a catch 22. They don’t get coverage because they

are not newsworthy, but they are not news worthy because they are not

covered by the media.

B. Rules of the Game

1. Winner-Take-All, Single Member Districts - In the United States we

generally elect only one person to a given office based on whoever wins

the most votes.

A. This arrangement creates a powerful incentive for parties to

coalesce and for voters to concentrate their attention on big parties.

B. From a voter’s perspective, a single-member, winner-take-all

election means that a vote for a minor party is wasted.

C. To parties, these electoral rules discourage minor party activities

because failure to come in first leaves such a party with no

representation at all. The incentive for these groups is to merge

with one of the larger parties.

2. Proportional Representation - Most other countries use some form of

proportional representation - a type of electoral system in which legislative

seats are apportioned to political parties in proportion to the popular vote

that each party receives. Here, a vote for a third party is not wasted

because it could very well lead to legislative seats and a place in a

governing coalition.