Chapter 5
POLITICAL PARTIES
Essential Questions
 In what ways should people participate in public
affairs?
 Does the two-party system help or harm democracy
in the United States?
 “No America without democracy, no democracy
without politics, no politics without parties, no
parties without compromise and moderation…”
(Clinton Rossiter)
Chapter 5, Section 1
PARTIES AND WHAT
THEY DO
What is a Party?
 Political Party: a group of persons who seek to
control government through winning of elections
and holding public office
 US political parties are election-oriented, not issueoriented

Each made up of three closely related elements:
 1) party organization
 2) party in government
 3) party in the electorate
What Parties Do
 Essential to democratic government—vital link between
people and government
 “power brokers”
 Functions:


1) Nominating Candidates*
2) Informing and Activating Supporters
Who else does this?
 Role of compromise?



3) Bonding Agent Function
4) Governing


Role of partisanship
5) Watchdog Function

“throw the rascals out”
Two-Party System
 US has long been dominated by two party system
 Factors:
 1) Historical Basis
Feds/Anti-Feds
 Framers & “factions”



2) Tradition
3) Electoral System
Single-member districts (winner take all)
 Bipartisan favoritism


4) American Ideological Consensus

Impact on parties?
Multiparty Systems
 Prominent in European democracies
 Interest-oriented parties – economic class, religion,
political ideology, etc.
 Strength/Weakness?
 Coalitions

Temporary alliance of several groups who come together to
form a working majority to control a government
 Examples
 Brazil, Germany, Chile, Italy, India
One-Party Systems
 “No-party” system
 “Modified one-party system”
 One-forth of American states
 Single party domination
 Class Discussion:
 Do you think one-party systems are beneficial? What are the
drawbacks of having a dominant party winning every election?
 How do you think the modified one-party system relates to
ideological consensus? Can you explain other reasons that this
phenomenon exists?
Chapter 5, Section 2
TWO-PARTY SYSTEM IN
AMERICAN HISTORY
The Nation’s First Parties
 The battle over ratification
of the Constitution led to
the rise of the first major
parties
 Federalist Party



Alexander Hamilton; John
Adams
“the rich and well-born”
Favored strong national
government—policies that
helped financial, commercial,
and manufacturing interests
Democratic-Republican Party
 Opposed the Federalists
 Originally called Anti-Federalist Party, then changed to
Jeffersonian Republicans/Democratic-Republican Party
 Favored a more limited national government—
policies aimed at helping farmers, planters, labor,
small business

“common man”
 Thomas Jefferson, James Madison
 Election of 1796 & 1800
Four Major Eras
 1) 1800-1860
 Democrats won 13/15 presidential elections
 2) 1860-1932
 Republicans won 14/18 elections
 3) 1932-1968
 Began with Democrats’ return to power and FDR’s first
election
 Democrats won 7/9 elections
 4) 1968-Present
 Republicans have won 7/12 elections
Era of Democrats
 “Era of Good Feeling”
Democratic-Republicans unopposed in national politics
 However, by 1820s, party split into numerous factions—
birth of National Republicans and then Whigs
 Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)
 “Jacksonian Democracy”—3 major changes:
 1) Voting rights expanded to include all whites
(regardless of property)
 2) Huge increase in number of elected offices
nationwide
 3) Spread of spoils system

Democrats vs. Whigs
 Democrats
 Drew
support from small farmers, debtors,
pioneers, slaveholders; especially popular in the
South and West
 Whigs
 Loose coalition of eastern bankers, merchants,
and industrialists; and many owners of large
southern plantations
 Favored high tariffs
 Henry Clay; Daniel Webster
Splitting of Parties
 Debate over slavery split the Whigs and Democrats
in the 1850s
 Whig Party fell apart—death of Clay and Webster
 Democrats split between northern and southern
factions
 Republican Party emerged in 1854
 Drew support from many Whigs as well as
antislavery Democrats
 First Republican President elected in 1860
Era of Republicans
 Republican Party won 14/18 presidential elections from
1860 to 1932
 Civil War crippled Democrats
 Power concentrated in the South—which they controlled
for roughly 100 years after Reconstruction
 Republican Party dominated nationally
 Support of farmers, laborers, business and financial
interests, and freed African Americans
 Republicans benefitted from years of economic
prosperity
Reading Check
 What third-party candidate had an influence on the
election of 1912? Explain.
Return of the Democrats
 Democrats won 7/9
presidential elections
from 1932 to 1968
 Impact of Great
Depression

Gained support of
southerners, small
farmers, big city political
organizations, labor
unions, and minority
groups
Era of Divided Government
 Republicans have won 7/12 presidential elections
since 1968
 Democrats controlled Congress for most of this
period

Republicans controlled Congress from 1995 to 2000 when Bill
Clinton was in office; as well as from 2011-2015
 Division of power has meant that neither party could
easily control the agenda without making
compromises
Chapter 5, Section 3
Objectives
 1) Identify the types of
minor parties that
have been active in
American politics.
 2) Understand why
minor parties are
important despite the
fact that none has ever
won the presidency.
Introduction
 What role have minor parties played in American
politics?
 Four broad categories:
Ideological Parties
Single-Issue Parties
Economic Protest Parties
Splinter Parties
 Spoiler Role
 Innovative Role
Ideological Parties
 Based on particular set of
beliefs—a comprehensive
view of social, economic, and
political factors

Most have been built around
Marxist ideas

Ex: Socialist, Socialist Labor,
Socialist Worker, and Communist
parties
 Libertarian Party?
 Rarely win votes, but long
term presence
Gary Johnson 2012
Single Issue Parties
 Emphasize one public policy
issue

Ex: Free Soil Party
 Most single issue parties fade
away when issue is resolved
or no longer attracts public
interest
 Know-Nothings; Right to
Life; Prohibition Party
Economic Protest Parties
 Arise in periods of economic
trouble
 No clear ideological base—
enemy is the monetary
system
 Call for economic reforms

Populist Party (Greenbacks) in
1890s
 Parties have short life span
Splinter Parties
 Split away from one of the
major parties
 Most of the more important
minor parties have been
splinter parties
 Often centered on a
particular candidate who
fails to win his or her
majority
nomination/disagreement
within a major party
 Cult of personality
Splinter Parties
 The Progressive parties of
Theodore Roosevelt and
Robert La Follette split
from the Republican Party

Roosevelt’s party nicknamed
Bull Moose Party
 Splinter parties tend to
break up when their
leaders step aside
Spoiler Role
 Minor Parties can also
play a spoiler role in an
election

By winning electoral votes
or even enough popular
votes to affect the outcome
in a key state, a minor party
can affect outcome of an
election
 Ex: Green Party & Ralph
Nader (2000)
Raising Public Awareness
 Most important role of minor parties is to raise
public awareness of controversial issues

Women’s suffrage, income tax, regulation of banking and
railroads
 Minor parties challenge the major parties to take
action on issues


Major parties often incorporate minor party issues
Norman Thomas: “the major parties are stealing from my
platform”
Chapter 5, Section 4
Objectives
 1. Understand why the major parties have a
decentralized structure.
 2. Describe the national party machinery
and party organization at the State and local
levels.
Topics
 How are political parties organized at the federal,
State, and local levels?
 Parties are decentralized.
 National Committees represent each party’s
interests at the national level.
 Most states have a central party committee.
 Local party structures vary quite widely from
place to place.
A Decentralized Structure
 Neither party has an unbroken chain of command
running through all levels of government.
 The President is the nominal leader of his or her
party.
This means that the party of the President is
typically better organized than its rival party.
The President’s media exposure and power to
make appointments is valuable, but does not
give him or her complete authority over all
party activities
Federalism & Nominating Process
 The federal system is decentralized.
There are more than half a million elective offices in
the United States spread across federal, state, and local
governments.
 The parties must satisfy a very wide range of voters,
which makes it hard to have a unified party message.
 How does the nomination process contribute to
intraparty conflict?
 The nominating process can lead to competition within
the parties.
 Nominations are made within the party and can divide
party members if there is a dispute over nominees.

The National Convention
 The national convention is held every
presidential election year.
 The convention names the party’s
presidential and vice-presidential
candidates, adopts the party’s rules, and
writes the official party platform.
 The convention does not name candidates
for other offices and has no control over the
actual policies supported by candidates.
National Committee
 The national committee handles party issues in
between conventions.



Each party’s national committee includes a committee
member from each state.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) now seats the
party chairperson for each state as well as representatives from
various Republican groups and the U.S. territories.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is even
larger. It includes the party chair and vice chairperson from
each state, additional party members from the larger states,
and up to 75 at large members chosen by the DNC.
National Chairsperson
 The national
chairperson leads the
national committee.
The chairperson is
chosen after the national
convention by the
presidential nominee.
 Howard Dean (right)
served as the Democratic
Party’s national
chairperson in the 2008
election.

National Chairperson
 The national chairperson
directs the work of the party
headquarters
 In presidential election years,
the national chairperson’s
work involves the presidential
campaign
 In other years, the chairperson
concentrates on building party
unity, raising money, and
recruiting new voters
State Party Organization
 State law largely determines party organization at the
state level.
 Most states have a central party committee headed by
a chairperson.
 The committee members choose the chairperson,
who often has a great deal of independence in
conducting party affairs.
 Committee members are chosen by a variety of
methods: primaries, caucuses, or state conventions.
 These officials try to promote party unity, find
candidates, and raise funds.
Local Party Organization
 Local party structure
varies a great deal.
 In some places local
party organizations are
active year-round, but
usually they focus their
efforts on the few
months before an
election.