Political Parties
Chapter 8
Political Party
- an organization that recruits, nominates, and elects party members to office in order to
influence government.
- Political Party Distinctions:
1) Run candidates under their own affiliation.
2) Political parties seek to govern
3) Political parties have broad concerns and multiple platforms
4) Quasi-public organizations that have a special relationship with the government.
5) Political parties are one of the main channels in which citizens make their voices heard.
6) They promote citizen participation
7) Bring together various groups to achieve a common goal.
8) Promote civic responsibility.
Differences in Republicans and Democrats:
Demographics:
R- Upper-middle class, Caucasian
D- Lower-middle class, varied ethnicities
Ideology:
R- Small government
D- Large government
Reapportionment and Redistricting
- Reapportionment: Reallocation of seats in the House of Reps. to each state based on
changes in the state’s population since the last census.
- Redistricting: redrawing of congressional district boundaries within each state, based
on the reapportionment from the census.
- Gerrymandering: The drawing of legislative district boundaries to benefit an
incumbent, a political party, or another group (Mass. Governor Elbridge Gerry, 1811).
Models Of Representation
Trustee Model:
- a model of representation in which a member of the House or Senate should articulate
and vote for the positions that best represents the view so the constituent .
(Rep. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, 1993).
Instruct Delegate Model
- a model of representation in which legislators, as representatives of their constituents,
should vote in keeping with the constituents’ views, even if those views contradict the
legislator’s views.
- Pork Barrels and Earmarks
Life of a Congressman
- Running for re-election
- Serving constituents
-Working on legislation
- Overseeing federal agencies
Working on Legislation:
- working on legislation in committees and voting on bills
- “bill” – formal legislation proposed to Congress – (10,000 a year).
- The work of committees and sub-committees
- House: serve on at least 5 – Senate: 7
-Standing Committee: permanent committees that are both represented in the
House and the Senate. (reporting legislation).
- Select Committee
- Conference Committees
- Join Committees (both houses and usually investigative).
History of Political Parties:
- 1796: The Federalists vs. The Democratic Republicans
- 1830’s: Whig Party vs. Democratic Party
- Kansas-Nebraska Bill (1854) – the voters in new proposed states would
decided for themselves whether or not to allow slavery.
- anti-slavery group of politicians from the Whig Party and the Democratic Party
came together to form the Republican Party. In 1860 the new Republican Party
ran Abraham Lincoln as their candidate for President and he won by a narrow
margin, signaling the beginning of the civil war.
- 1900-1970: Candidate-Centered Era
- Modern Parties and the entrenched party lines.