Political Parties
What is a political party?
• A team of people seeking to control the
governing apparatus by winning elected
office.
Three incarnations of party?
• Party as Organization
– Office seekers
– Benefit seekers
• Party in the Electorate
• Party in Government
Washington’s Farewell Address
• The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of
party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a
wise people to discourage and restrain it.
• It serves always to distract the public councils and
enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the
community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms,
kindles the animosity of one part against another,
foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the
door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a
facilitated access to the government itself through the
channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will
of one country are subjected to the policy and will of
another.
The framers thought that parties were bad
for America. Were they right? What are
parties’ negative effects on the political
system? What are their positive effects?
What would politics be like without them?
Why do we have political parties?
What problems do they solve?
Problems that political parties solve
• Make legislating easier
• Mobilize voters/Simplify voter decisionmaking
• Regulate politicians’ ambition
• Enforce collective responsibility
Problems that political parties
create
• Can magnify and harden conflicts
• Can oversimplify issues
• Can seem to relieve citizens of hard work
of self-education
Electoral rules affect party strength
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The golden age of parties 1828-1912
Declining party strength 1912-1972
Era of weak parties 1972-1994
Stronger parties? 1994-???
The golden age of parties
1828-1912
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Spoils system
No secret ballot
Politics as entertainment
Grass roots parties
High voter turnout
Declining party strength:
1912-1972
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Australian ballot, secret ballot
Civil service reforms
Primary elections
Direct election of senators
Nonpartisan local elections
New Deal welfare state
More candidate-centered campaigns
Era of weak parties
1972-1994
• TV
• Campaign finance
• Deep ideological divisions within parties
– (Particularly the Democratic party!)
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Weak party discipline in Congress
Candidate centered elections
Rise in number of “independents”
Split ticket voting
Stronger parties?
1994-???
• Strong party discipline in Congress
• Highly partisan, competitive presidential
elections
• Increased turnout
• New restrictions on party-building?
Which side are you on?
Democrats to the LEFT
Republicans to the RIGHT