Joshua Bryant
Period 4
CHAPTER 8 OUTLINE
AP Government & Politics
I. Introduction
A. Party competition is the battle between Democrats and Republicans
for control of the public offices.
B. Without this competition there would be no choice, and without
choice there would be no democracy.
II. THE MEANING OF PARTY
A. Political parties endorse candidates for public office and try to win
elections.
B. Party leaders often disagree about policy, and between elections the
parties are nearly invisible.
C. Political scientists think of political parties as 3 headed monsters.
1. The party-in-the-electorate
a. Largest part of American political system
b. Americans join party by simply identifying with it
2. The party as an organization
a. Has a national office, full-time staff, rules and by-laws,
and budgets.
3. The party-in-government
a. Consists of elected officials who label themselves as
members of the party.
D. Tasks of the parties
1. In a large democracy, linkage institutions
a. Translate inputs from public to outputs from
policymakers
b. Four main linkage institutes: parties, elections, interest
groups, media.
2. Tasks performed by parties as linkage institutes:
a. parties run campaigns;
b. Parties give cues to voters;
c. Parties articulate policies;
d. Parties coordinate policy-making;
E. Parties, voters, and policy: The Downs Model.
1. Anthony Downs has sought to explain the political system as
processes and consequences of purpose behavior.
2. Rational-choice theory
a. If both parties and voters are rational,
1. Voters want to maximize chance that policies
they favor will be adopted by government
2. Parties want to win office
b. In order to win an office, the parties choose policies that
are widely favored.
c. The majority of American electorate are moderate
voters with very few being extremely liberal or
conservative.
Joshua Bryant
Period 4
d. Although we frequently hear criticism that there is not
much difference between the Democrats and
Republicans, many say that they can see many more
major differences now than in the past.
e. From a rational-choice perspective, one should expect
parties to differentiate themselves at least somewhat.
III. THE PARTY IN THE ELECTORATE
A. The party in the electorate
1. There is no formal membership in the parties.
2. For most people, the party is a psychological label.
B. Party images help shape people’s party identification--1. The clearest trend in party identification is the decline of both
parties and the upsurge of independence.
2. Virtually every major social group (except African-American
voters) have moved towards a position of increased
independence.
3. By contrast, African-Americans have moved even more
towards the Democratic party.
C. Party identification remains strongly linked to the voter’s choice,
1. Not only are there more Independents now, more people who
still align with a party don’t remain as loyal in the booths.
2. Divided government has frequently been the result of voters
failing to make an across-the-board choice between parties.
IV. THE PARTY ORGANIZATIONS: FROM THE GRASS ROOTS TO
WASHINGTON
A. American political parties are decentralized and fragmented.
1. Unlike many European parties, American parties have no
organization and no power in the government.
2. Candidates in the United have little power compared to
European party leaders and candidates.
B. Local parties: the dying urban machines
1. Urban party organizations used t be the main political party
organization in American.
2. At one time urban parties were dominant.
a. From the late nineteenth century through the New Deal
of the 1930s, scores of cities were dominated by party
machines.
C. The fifty state party systems.
1. American national parties are a loose aggregation of state
parties, which are themselves a fluid association of individuals,
groups, and local organizations.
2. There are fifty state party systems, and no two are exactly
alike.
3. States determine how easy it is to participate in nomination
contests by their adoption of one of three types of elections:
closed primaries, open primaries, and blanket primaries.
Joshua Bryant
Period 4
D. The national party organizations.
1. The national convention is the supreme power within each of
the parties.
a. Meets every four years, and writes party’s platform and
nominate its candidates for president and vice
president.
2. The national committee keeps the party operating between
conventions.
a. Includes representatives from states and territories
3. Day-to-day activities of the national party are the
responsibility of the national chairperson.
V. THE PARTY IN GOVERNMENT: PROMISES AND POLICY
A. Party control does matter because the elected officials who represent
it generally try to turn campaign promises into action.
B. Since candidates are now much less dependent upon parties to get
nominated and elected, that “control” is much less fixed than it used to
be.
C. Voters and coalitions of voters are attracted to different parties
largely based on the party’s performance in government and its
policies.
D. The parties have done a fairly good job over the years of fulfilling their
promises to the voters.
VI. PARTY ERAS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
A. In contrast to the United States, most democratic nations have more
than two major parties.
B. Throughout American history, America has always been a two party
system.
1. Party eras were punctuated by critical elections, political
earthquakes. Fissures appear in parties, new issues arise, and a
party’s coalition starts to fracture.
2. A party realignment (a rare event) is typically associated with
a major crisis or trauma in the nation’s history (such as the
civil war).
3. A new coalition (a set of individuals or groups supporting the
party) forms at the introduction of a critical event that tests the
party’s loyalty.
4. A critical election period may require more than one election
before change is apparent.
C. 1796-1824: The first party system
1. Alexander Hamilton helped inaugurate our party system.
2. Hamilton needed congressional support for his pet policies,
particularly a national bank.
3. The Federalists were America’s shortest-lived major party,
fading quickly after John Adams was defeated in his reelection
bid in 1800.
D. The Democratic-Republicans (also known as Jeffersonians)
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Period 4
E.
F.
G.
H.
1. General Andrew Jackson founded the modern American
political party.
2. Jackson was originally a Democratic-Republican, but soon after
his ascension to the presidency his party became known as
simply the Democratic Party, which continues to this day.
3. Jackson’s successor, Martin Van Buren, was the behind-thescenes architect of the Democrats.
4. The Whigs had two distinct wings – Northern industrialists and
Southern planters – who were brought together more by the
Democratic policies they opposed than by the issues on which
they agreed.
1860-1928: The Republican Era.
1. The issue of slavery dominated American politics and split
both the Whigs and the Democrats.
2. The Republican Party rose in the late 1850s as the antislavery
party.
3. The Republicans forged a coalition strong enough to elect
Abraham Lincoln as President and ignite the civil war.
4. The Civil War brought a party realignment, which allowed the
Republican Party to thrive for nearly 60 years after the war.
5. The election of 1896 was a watershed during this era- starting
the second Republican Era and igniting one of the coldest
political battles in American history.
6. The republicans continued as the nation’s majority party until
the stock market crashed in 1929.
1932-1964: The New Deal coalition
1. President Herbert Hoover’s handling of the Great Depression
was disastrous for the Republican party.
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt promised a New Deal of reforming the
economy with legislative measures.
3. Congress passed scores of anti-depression legislature.
4. Party realignment began in earnest after the Roosevelt
administration got the country moving again.
1968-present: The era of divided government
1. Although the Democrats have been the majority party, recent
patterns have shown that a split government is becoming more
common.
2. An unprecedented period of divided government has marked
a period of discrepancy between he pattern of elected
president and control of congress.
3. It is likely that divided party government is now becoming
commonplace among state governments.
Party dealignment means that people are slowly moving away from
both political parties.
Joshua Bryant
Period 4
1. Many political scientists believe that the recent pattern has
shown how the party system has dealigned rather than
realigned.
2. Many scholars fear that the parties are becoming useless, just
as a car is useless without a steering wheel.
3. Conversely, there are also some signs of party renewal,
4. The recent dealignment has been characterized by a growing
party neutrality.
5. Those who do identify with a party are
6. Even though party loyalty has lagged, party organizations have
become more energetic and effectiveVII. THIRD PARTIES: THEIR IMPACT ON AMERICAN POLITICS
A. There are three basic varieties of third parties.
1. Parties that promote certain causes – either a controversial
single issue or an extreme ideological position such as
socialism or libertarianism.
2. Splinter parties that are offshoots of a major party – such as
Teddy Roosevelt’s or Strom Thurmond’s States’ Righters.
3. Parties that are an extension of a popular individual with
presidential aspirations – such as John Anderson and Ross
Perot.
B. Importance of third parties.
1. Third parties have controlled little major offices but have had a
major influence.
2. They have brought new groups into the electorate and have
served as “safety valves” for popular discontent.
3. They have brought new issues onto the political agenda.
C. Consequences of the two-party system
1. The most obvious consequence of two-party governance is the
moderation of political conflict.
a. With just two parties, extreme and unconventional
views are throttled.
b. The result is often political ambiguity – why should they
take a stand on controversial issues if doing so will only
antagonize many voters?
2. One of the major reasons the United States has only two parties
represented in government is structural –
a. In this system, the party that receives a plurality –
b. This system.
3. In a system that uses proportional representation
a. A party must achieve
b. A small party may use
c. A coalition government
VIII.
UNDERSTANDING POLITICAL PARTIES
A. Political parties are considered essential elements of democratic
government.
Joshua Bryant
Period 4
B. Democracy and responsible party government.
1. Ideally, in a democracy candidates should say what they mean
to do if elected and, once they are elected, should be able to do
what they promised.
2. Critics of the American party system complain that this is all
too often not the case, and have called a “more responsible
two-party system.”
a. The responsible party model calls for parties to meet
certain conditions:
1. Parties must present distinct, comprehensive
programs for governing the nation.
2. Each party’s candidates must be committed to its
program and have the internal cohesion and
discipline to carry out its program.
3. The majority party must implement its
programs, and the minority party must state
what it would do if it were in power.
4. The majority party must accept responsibility for
the performance of the government.
b. Under this model, a two-party system would make it
easier to convert party promises into government
policy.
3. American parties do not meet the conditions of the responsible
party model.
a. They are too decentralized to take a single national
position and then enforce it.
b. Because virtually anyone can vote in a party’s
primaries, the parties do not have control over those
who run under their labels.
c. In America’s loosely organized party system, there is
there is simply no mechanism for a party do discipline
officeholders and thereby ensure cohesion in
policymaking.
4. There are supporters of America’s two-party system who are
critical of the responsible party model.
a. They argue that the complexity and diversity of
American society are too great to be captured by such a
simple model of party politics.
b. America’s decentralized parties are appropriate for the
type of limited government that the founding fathers
sought to create and most Americans wish to maintain.
C. Individualism and gridlock
1. The founding Fathers wanted protection from political parties
that they thought would trample over the rights of the
individuals.
Joshua Bryant
Period 4
2. Weak parties make it easier for politicians to avoid tough
decisions; this allows them to act as they see fit instead of
toeing the party line.
D. American political parties and the scope of government.
1. Weak parties limit the breadth of which the government can
rule.
2. Because no single party can ever be said to have firm control
over the government, the hard choices necessary to cut back
on existing government spending are rarely addressed.
3. Divided government has meant that individual politicians are
able to focus their efforts on getting more from the
government for their own constituents.
E. Is the party over?
1. Parties are no longer the main source of political information,
attention, and affection.
a. More and more political communication is done with
technology and not through the political parties.
b. The technology of campaigning was widely advanced by
special interest groups and not by the political parties.
c. With the advent of television, voters no longer had to
rely on the political parties to find out what candidates
are like or what they stand for.
d. The power of interest groups has grown enormously in
recent years.
2. There are indications that they are beginning to adapt to the
high-tech age.
a. State and national party organizations have become
more visible and active than ever.
b. Although more people than ever before call themselves
Independent and splitting their tickets, the majority still
identify with a party, and this percentage seems to have
stabilized.