Political Parties
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Objectives
• Define political party, identifying key players and how they
function in the party.
• Understand the significance of political parties in different forms
of government, and describe what distinguishes them from
each other.
• Examine the history of political party development in the United
States, and explore the two waves of political reform that
weakened party organization.
• Describe how American parties are organized and the impact of
party structure on political processes in the United States.
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Objectives
• Understand the causes and effects of a two-party system.
• Explore how third parties survive and operate within a two-party
system, and examine the impact of third parties on American
politics.
• Define responsible party government and explain why parties
in the United States have been successful or unsuccessful in
fulfilling this governing doctrine.
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Why are we the way
we are?
Why does it matter
to you?
In particular,
why are
political
parties in
America so
loosely
organized
and what
effect does
this have on
politics?
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Core Questions:
Defining Political Parties
• An organization combining activists,
candidates, and elected officials, whose
primary purpose is to nominate
candidates and contest general
elections.
• Created for a specific purpose by
politicians in the U.S.
• Late 18th and early 19th centuries
• Need for organization to mobilize voters for a
particular party
• Different types of party organizations
• Very formal and hierarchical to loosely
organized and less formal
• U.S.: less centralized, candidate-centered
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Purposes of a Political Party
• Campaigning
• Mobilization
• Recruitment and socialization of
leaders
• Providing identity
• Providing a channel for control
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© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The Development of American Political Parties
• Early Party Formation
• Founders: electoral college, no parties
• Electoral college: distinguished citizens selected by the states would choose
the president and vice president.
• Each state legislator would appoint the senators.
• Founders: imagined and hoped for dignified decision-making in House
elections and Senate appointments
• Internal conflict within the House
• Federalists/Hamilton vs. anti-Federalists/Democratic-Republicans/Jefferson
• Hamilton’s coalition did well in the House votes.
• Jefferson and Madison turned to organizing an alliance that would become
an electoral alliance to elected like-minded individuals under the label of the
Democratic-Republican Party.
• They were successful and won the presidency and the House in the election
of 1800.
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© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The First Party System, 1800-1820
• This system is marked by the appearance of the new DemocraticRepublican Party and their competition with the Federalist Party.
• Federalists declined, but did remain a regional New England party; could
not offer a presidential candidate to oppose James Monroe in the election
of 1820.
• Era of Good Feelings: no opposition to the Democratic-Republican
Party and thus no partisan conflict. But this did not last.
• Internal disagreements emerged: Democratic-Republicans
factionalized.
• Sen. Martin Van Buren of New York became upset with James Monroe
for cooperating too much with Federalists.
• Launched a successful effort to nominate and elect Andrew Jackson.
• Van Buren created a new kind of party: mass mobilization; campaigning.
• This party became the Democratic Party.
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The Second Party System, 1828-1854
• Democratic Party expanded
its reach; organized in
every state
• Opposition: remnants of the
Federalists, Jackson
opposition emerged as
Whig Party
• Opposed the extension of
presidential power
• Supported development of
transportation and infrastructure
• Second Party System
characterized by
competition between Whigs
and Democrats.
• Abundance of third parties
as well; policy-based
• Anti-Masonic and the
American Party opposed
immigration
• Liberty Party and Free Soil
Party focused on slavery issue
• This issue, slavery, would tear
the Second Party System
apart.
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150 Years of Democrats and Republicans
• 1854 new anti-slavery party formed: Republican Party
• Replaced Whig Party as the main opposition to the
Democratic Party
• 1860 Republican Abraham Lincoln won the presidency.
• Election ignited the Civil War
• Marked the beginning of two major parties dominating
American politics
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The Golden Age of Parties, 1860-1900
• High levels of competition between the parties
• Intensely partisan voters aligned with well organized,
strong parties
• After Civil War party system:
• Republican North vs. Democratic South
• During this period the largest margin any presidential
candidate won by was just three percentage points.
• Political machines
• Patronage
• Party bosses
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• Republican Party had long era of electoral dominance after the election of
1896.
• Average margin of victory: 15%
• Only Democrat elected during this period was Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
due to a split in the Republican Party.
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Republican Dominance and Progressive Reform,
1900-1932
• Parties very regional during this time period; less related to economic status
but rather where they lived.
• Democrats: rural, some support in West, strong base of white southerners
• Republicans: dominated in all states in Northeast and Midwest
• Progressive Movement
•
•
•
•
Make politics more open and issue-oriented; rising middle class
Direct primaries
Civil service
Weakened political parties
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The New Deal and Democratic Dominance,
1932-1964
• Issue of the poor emerges; focus of multiple, smaller parties
• Eugene Debs: socialist candidate for president in every election from
1900 to 1920.
• Robert LaFollette, Progressive Party
• Depression 1929: massive unemployment and bankruptcies
• FDR wins in 1932 election and in 1936
• Parties began to reshape themselves:
• Democrats drew support from labor unions, liberals, northern African
Americans and southern whites.
• Republicans had support from upper middle class, business interests,
regional support in rural areas of Northeast and Midwest.
• Period of Democratic dominance, but uneasy coalition would
unravel slowly until coalition broke down in 1960s.
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Republican Recovery, 1964-Present
• Civil Rights movement made it difficult for Democratic Party to
hold its coalition together.
• Voting Rights Act 1965 – shock to the nation at that time
• Civil Rights Act 1964 – changed political landscape
• Conservative voters moved to the Republican Party; pulled it more to
the ideological right.
• Democratic Party picked up strength in old Republican strongholds,
while South went for Republicans.
• Other changes:
• Religious right as dominant force in Republican Party; Tea Party
movement
• Feminism and environmentalism, racial and ethnic minorities, feminism,
labor, low income in Democratic Party
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© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The Parties Today: Core Beliefs
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The Parties Today: Group Support
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Reforms Weaken the Parties:
Round Two
• 1970s: political reforms weaken the parties
• 1968 Democratic Convention
• McGovern Fraser Commission
• primaries
• Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971
• Regulation of party expenditures
• Emergence of political action committees
• Advent of television
• Emergence of split-ticket voting
• Voters cast their ballot for a mix of Democratic and
Republican candidates rather than just one party’s
candidates.
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Electoral Realignments and Partisan
Change
• Critical election: an election that causes the two parties to change
and realign themselves in response to new issues.
• Electoral realignment: lasting change produced by a critical election.
• Often change is extended over more than one election.
• Critical elections usually preceded by attempts at change, often spurred
on by third parties.
• But generally, there is a stable period of support for the major parties,
even as new issues arise that do not match up with the current orientation
of the two parties. An election or series of elections occurs in which the
two main parties reorient themselves along the new issue lines.
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The Structure of American Parties
• Three parts exist independently
of each other; not combined
within a single organizational
structure.
• Each supports and influences
each other.
Party in
the
Electorate
Party
Organization
Party in
Government
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Party in the Electorate
• Party identification
• Differences among party identifiers are visible; among activists,
stronger
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Party Organizations: State and Local
• State party organization: state party chair and central
committee
• Focus on helping candidates in statewide and state
legislative races
• Utilizes support of local party organizations
• Rarely determine who is nominated, but works to support
nominees in general elections
• Organizing grassroots mobilization
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Party Organizations:
National Committees
• Oversees the day-to-day business of a party
• Raises money for candidates and state party organizations
• Organizes the national nominating convention every four years
• Party platform
• Each party’s national committee is similar yet different; they vary in
their rules and size.
• Democrats: 500 members
• Republicans: 150 members
• Chair of each national committee chosen by the parties’ presidential
nominee and then elected by the National Committee, BUT if the
nominee loses, then the party’s national committee generally chooses
their own pick.
• Plays a limited role
• National party organizations have seen a resurgence in recent years.
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© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Party Organizations:
Congressional Committees
• Each party has a committee in the Senate and the House.
• Focus is primarily to raise money for candidates who are
incumbents, and to recruit candidates for open seats.
• Usually committees put more resources into the campaigns that
actually have a chance of winning.
• Goal: increase the size of their party’s delegation to the House
or Senate.
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• Parties in Congress
• Organized by party; in House meet as a Democratic Caucus or
Republican Conference – Senate: both refer to their groups as
conferences
• Determine strategy; Senate less partisan in behavior
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Parties in Government
• Presidents and Parties
• Leader of their party nationally; fundraiser
• Party ties important in relations with Congress; divided government less
helpful
• Parties in State Government
• Parties generally affect decision making even more strongly at the state
level than nationally.
• Governor and legislators may work closely together.
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The Two-Party System
In U.S., two
parties are regular
political
contenders.
Unlike multi-party
systems, in which
three or more
parties regularly
contend for office.
Most of world’s
democracies are
multi-party
systems.
Role of the
winner- take-all
system in the U.S.
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Third Parties in American Politics
• Third parties: smaller political parties (minor parties) that are so
greatly limited by the single-member, plurality electoral system
in the U.S. as well as other obstacles, that they have a very low
probability of winning office.
• Other barriers include: signature requirements for ballot access;
public funding of campaigns, and so on.
• Have had some success and made a difference in policy.
• Three types:
• Offshoots form a major party (Progressive Party 1912)
• Ideological or single issue parties: Populist, Socialist, Libertarian and
Green Parties
• Vehicles for independent candidates; Perot’s United We Stand America
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Responsible Party Government
• Requires parties to:
• Present policies to the
electorate
• Carry them out if elected
• Develop alternatives to
government’s policies
when out of office
• Differ sufficiently
between each other to
offer voters a choice
• Tea party emergence
• Today, our parties look
more like responsible
parties
• Questions of
accountability; divided
government and
numerous checks and
balances
• Difficult for victorious
party to put its program in
place
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