Chapter 7 Outline
Summary  Political parties and their candidates compete for control of the presidency, each
offering different visions of what government should do. Parties unify and mobilize disparate
groups in society, simplify the choices facing voters, and bring efficiency and coherence to
government policy making.
I.
What Are Political Parties?
Unlike the unified and homogeneous political parties in most European countries, American
political parties are composed of three separate and largely independent pieces. Though they
generally have the same goals, the groups rarely act in an organized manner, and have no
obligation to work together.
A. The party organization involves the structure of national, state, and local parties,
including party leaders and workers.
B. The party in government is made up of the politicians who were elected as candidates
of a specific political party.
C. The party in the electorate includes all the citizens who identify with the party.
II.
History of American Political Parties
The term party system is used to describe periods in which the major parties’ names, their
groups of supporters, and the issues dividing them are all constant. In all, there have been six
party systems in American history, each separated by periods of realignment.
A. The First Party System, 1789–1828
Political parties formed soon after the founding of the United States. The first political
parties were the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans. Federalists
favored a strong central government and a national bank, while Jeffersonian DemocraticRepublicans opposed these positions in favor of concentrating power at the state level.
These political parties differed from the modern party system in that few citizens thought
of themselves as party members, and candidates for office did not campaign as
representatives of a political party.
B. The Second Party System, 1829–1856
1. The Federalist Party disintegrated as its members were defeated in re-election
bids or switched parties. After a brief period as the only major political party, the
Democratic-Republicans became the Democratic Party, the ancestor of the
modern-day organization. Meanwhile, another new party, the Whigs, emerged.
2. The new Democratic Party embodied two important innovations:
a. It cultivated electoral support as a way of strengthening the party’s hold on
power in Washington. The party built organizations at the state and local level
to mobilize citizens to support the party’s candidates. This innovation became
known as the party principle, the idea that a political party exists as an
organization distinct from its elected officials or party leaders. These
developments gave way to the first party in the electorate.
b. In addition, the Democrats developed the spoils system, whereby party
supporters were rewarded with benefits like federal government jobs.
C. The Third Party System, 1857–1892
1. The issues of slavery split the second party system. Antislavery Whigs left the party
and formed a new organization, the Republican Party, which also attracted antislavery
Democrats. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party became the party of the South, and the
party defending slavery. The demise of the Whigs and the rise of the Republican
Party illustrates that parties exist only because elites, politicians, party leaders, and
activists want them to.
D. The Fourth Party System, 1893–1932
1. While the Civil War settled the issue of slavery, the Democrats and Republicans
remained as the dominant parties, though their issues of division evolved. In the
fourth system, the parties divided on concerns such as the withdrawal of the Union
Army from southern states, and whether the federal government should involve itself
with the rapidly growing American cities and the swelling number of recent
immigrants.
E. The Fifth Party System, 1933–1968
1. In the wake of the Great Depression, the Democratic Party emerged out of the New
Deal Coalition, drawing support from African Americans, Catholics, Jews, union
members, and white southerners. This transformation established the basic division
between the Republican and Democratic parties that would persist for the rest of the
twentieth century. Democrats generally favored a large federal government that took
an active role in managing the economy and regulating individual and corporate
behavior. Republicans believed that many of these programs should either be
provided by state and local governments or kept entirely separate from government.
F. The Sixth Party System, 1969–Present
1. Changes in political issues and technology drove the transition from the fifth to the
sixth party system. Democrats came out against the “separate but equal” system of
racial discrimination in southern states and in favor of programs designed to ensure
equal opportunity for minority citizens. Furthermore, while Republicans opposed
expanding the role of government, Democrats argued in favor of expanding the
federal government to provide health care funding, antipoverty programs, education,
and public works. At the same time, both Republican and Democratic party
organizations transitioned into parties in service, providing recruiting, training, and
campaigning for their party’s congressional and presidential candidates.
G. Realignments
1. Each party system is separated from the next by a realignment, a change in the size
or composition of the party coalitions or in the nature of the issues that divide the
parties. A realignment begins with the emergence of a new question or issue debate
that captures the attention of large numbers of ordinary citizens, activists, and
politicians.
2. In order to spur a realignment, the issue has to be crosscutting, meaning that within
each party coalition, people disagree on what government should do. Realignments
typically occur within an election cycle or two, but they can also occur gradually over
the course of a decade or longer.
III.
Modern American Political Parties
A. The Party Organization
1. The principal policy-making body in each party organization is the national
committee, comprising party representatives from each state. Parties include a
number of constituency groups (the Democrats’ term) or teams (the Republicans’
term), which are organizations within the party that work to attract the support of
particular demographic groups considered likely to share the party’s issue concerns.
2. Many other groups are loosely affiliated with one of the major parties. Political
action committees (PACs) are interest groups or divisions of interest groups that can
raise money to contribute to campaigns or to spend on ads in support of candidates.
The amount they can receive from each of their donors and their expenditure on
federal electioneering are strictly limited. 527 organizations are tax-exempt groups
formed primarily to influence elections through voter mobilization efforts and issue
ads that do not directly endorse or oppose a candidate. Unlike political action
committees, they are not subject to contribution limits and spending caps. While these
groups often favor one party or the other, they are not part of the party organization
and do not always agree with the party’s positions or support its candidates.
3. Because the parties stand for different things, in terms of their preferred government
policies and their ideological leanings, the party names themselves are like brand
names because they offer a shorthand way of providing information to voters about
the parties’ candidates.
4. Party organizations are not hierarchies. Because individual committee members are
not appointed by their state party organizations, they have freedom of action. If the
majority of committee members disagree with the party leader, they can remove him
or her from office. The national party organization is also unable to force state and
local parties to share its positions on issues or comply with other requests. State and
local parties make their own decisions about state- and local- level candidates and
issue positions.
5. A political machine is an unofficial patronage system within a political party that
seeks to gain political power and government contracts, jobs, and other benefits for
party leaders, workers and supporters. While machines were common in nineteenthcentury cities, their decline began at the turn of the twentieth century.
B. The Party in Government
1. The party in government consists of elected officials holding national, state, and local
offices who took office as candidates of a particular party. Because it is composed of
officeholders, it has a direct impact on government policy. Democratic and
Republican parties in government in the U.S. House and Senate are organized around
working groups—Democrats call theirs a caucus; Republicans have a conference.
The caucus or conference serves as a forum for debate, compromise, selection of
party leadership, and strategizing among party leaders.
2. The modern Congress is polarized; in both the House and Senate, Republicans and
Democrats hold different views on government policy, with little crossover support
for the other party’s policy goals. Over the last sixty years, the magnitude of
ideological difference between the parties in Congress has increased considerably.
Nonetheless, the Democrats and Republicans are still quite internally heterogeneous,
and compromise within a party caucus is not inevitable.
C. The Party in the Electorate
1. The party in the electorate consists of citizens who identify with and show some
loyalty to a particular political party. Party identification (party ID) is a critical
variable in understanding votes and other forms of political participation. If you are
trying to predict how someone will vote, the most important predictor is party
identification.
2. Real participation in party operations is open to all citizens, though few dedicate their
time, effort, and money to supporting a party organization or one of its candidates.
These party activists comprise only about 5 of the population.
3. Early theories of party identification described it as a deeply felt attachment. Further
work, however, has shown that party ID is more of a running tally—a frequently
updated mental evaluation of parties and candidates that allows citizens to incorporate
new information in their choice to identify with one or another party. Thus, when one
chooses a political party, that decision is based on what they have seen in American
politics. New information tends to reinforce existing loyalties.
4. The parties in the electorate have transformed considerably in the past 40 years.
During the 1970s, nearly half of adults identified with the Democratic Party and only
about 20 percent with Republicans. During the 1990s, the percentage of Democratic
identifiers decreased significantly and the percentage of Republican identifiers
increased slightly, to the point that since 2002, the parties have had roughly the same
percentage of identifiers.
5. People who identify as political independents have been hard to characterize. Early
analyses concluded that independents were unaffiliated with a party because they
were in the process of shifting their identification from one party to the other. Others
saw independents as evidence of dealignment, a slow decline in the percentage of
citizens who identify with one of the major parties. More recent work suggests that
many people who identify as independents actually have some weak attachment to
one of the major political parties.
6. Party coalitions are groups who identify with a political party, usually described in
demographic terms, such as African American Democrats or evangelical
Republicans. The Republican and Democratic party coalitions differ systematically in
terms of their policy preferences.
IV.
The Role of Political Parties in a Democracy
A. Contesting Elections
1. Virtually everyone elected to a state or national political office is either a Republican
or a Democrat.
a. The process of recruiting candidates has become very systematic, with
national party leaders playing a central role in finding and recruiting
candidates.
b. Parties do not control who runs in House or Senate races. In most
states, candidates for these offices are selected in a primary election or
a caucus. A primary is a ballot vote in which citizens select a party’s
nominee for the general election. A political caucus is a local meeting
in which party members select a party’s nominee for the general
election.
c. Running as a party’s nominee is the easiest way to get on the ballot. In
most states, the number of signatures required to earn a candidate a
spot on the ballot is much lower for the major party candidates than for
independent and minor-party candidates. Thus, virtually all prominent
candidates for Congress and the presidency run as Democrats or
Republicans, even if they do not agree with everything the party stands
for.
d. National parties also manage the nomination process for presidential
candidates, which involves a series of primaries and caucuses. Voters
in these primaries and caucuses determine how many of each
candidate’s supporters become delegates to the party’s national
nominating convention, where delegates from each state select the
party’s presidential and vice presidential nominees and approve the
party platform.
2. One of the parties’ primary activities is helping candidates with their campaigns.
Along with supplying campaign funds, party organizations give candidates other
kinds of assistance, ranging from offering campaign advice to conducting polls.
3. A party platform is a set of objectives outlining the party’s issue positions and
priorities. Although candidates are not required to support their party’s platform,
party platforms generally reflect the brand-name differences between the parties,
giving citizens an easy way to make judgments about candidates.
B. Cooperation in Government
1. Conditional party government refers to the theory that when the parties are
polarized and internally homogeneous, lawmakers from the same party will cooperate
to develop policy proposals. On the other hand, when the parties are not polarized, or
when the parties are internally heterogeneous, lawmakers may cooperate with
members of the opposite party. Preferably, the policies reached when the conditions
of conditional party government are met will be attractive to backbenchers,
legislators who do not hold leadership positions within their party caucus or
conference. That said, given the weakness of party leaders, there is no guarantee that
compromise will be reached.
a. Throughout the year, the parties in government meet to devise strategies for
legislative action. Congressional leaders use their power to control when
proposals are considered, which amendments are allowed, and how long debate
will proceed to ensure speedy consideration and to prevent the opposing minority
party from delaying votes or offering alternatives.
b. Political parties can play an important role in coordinating the actions taken in
different branches of government. Such coordination is important for enacting
new laws: unless supporters in Congress can amass a two-thirds majority to
override a veto, they need the president’s support. Similarly, the president needs
congressional support to enact proposals that he or she favors. Thus, the president
routinely meets with congressional leaders from his party, and occasionally meets
with the entire caucus or conference.
c. One of the most important roles of political parties in a democracy is giving
citizens identifiable groups to reward or punish for government actions, thereby
providing a means for voters to focus their desire for accountability.
2. During periods of unified government, one party holds a majority of seats in the
House and Senate and the president is a member of that same party. That party is the
party in power; it has enough votes to enact policies in Congress. During times of
divided government, when one party controls Congress but not the presidency or the
House and Senate are controlled by different parties, the president’s party is
considered the party in power.
3. Some political scientists argue that legislators from the same party should be forced
to work as a team—to run on the same campaign platform, work together in
Washington, and be held collectively accountable. Political organizations that
function in this way are called responsible parties, and they have never existed in
American politics.
V.
Minor Parties
A. Minor political parties in America are so minor that they are not significant players on the
political stage. Very few Americans identify with minor parties, especially since most
minor parties exist for only a short period of time.
1.
Effects on Election Outcomes
a. People vote for minority party candidates because they find those
candidates’ positions more attractive than those of the major parties,
and also because they believe that neither major party can govern
effectively.
2.
Unique Issues Facing Minor Parties
a. Duverger’s law states that in a democracy with single-member
districts and plurality voting, like the United States, only two parties’
candidates will have a realistic chance of winning political office.
Single-member districts comprise an electoral system in which every
elected official represents a geographically defined area, such as a
state or congressional district, and each area elects one representative.
3. Plurality voting is a voting system in which the candidate who receives the most
votes within a geographic area wins the election, regardless of whether that candidate
wins a majority (more than half) of the votes. Thus, many people will consider a vote
for a minor party candidate to be a wasted vote. Moreover, minor party candidates
face significantly higher legal hurdles to get on the ballot.
VI.
What Kind of Democracy Do American Political Parties Create?
A. The question of whether political parties are good or bad for democracy depends on how
the individual party members and officials carry out these tasks. Despite all the efforts
parties put forth to select good candidates, they are still made up of individuals who are
primarily interested in their own careers, policy goals, and winning political office, rather
than cultivating democracy.
1. Recruiting Candidates
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One of the most important things the Republican and Democratic parties
do for democracy is recruit qualified, capable candidates for national
political offices who can run effective campaigns and responsibly uphold
their elected positions. Nonetheless, party organizations do not get to
select the candidates who win their party’s nomination: voters do.
2. Working Together in Campaigns
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Parties also work to simplify voters’ choices by trying to get candidates to
emphasize the same issues or take similar issue positions. That said,
members of the party organization and the party in government do not
always agree on what government should do, and party leaders have very
little power over candidates.
3. Working Together in Office
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Because candidates are not required to support their party’s platform, there
is no guarantee that party members will work together in office. Voters
cannot expect that putting one party in power is going to result in specific
policy changes. Instead, policy outcomes depend on how (and whether)
individual officeholders from the party can resolve their differences.
4. Accountability
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A party must serve as an accountability mechanism that gives citizens an
identifiable group to reward when policies work well and to punish when
policies fail. However, individual legislators work to develop a personal
constituency that is independent of their party label.
5. Citizens’ Behavior
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Citizens are under no obligation to give money or time to the party they
identify with or to any of the party’s candidates. Even if they are strong
party identifiers, they do not have to vote for their party’s candidates, or
even vote at all. This lack of participation by the citizenry weakens party
organizations and reduces the likelihood that the party organizations will
be able to work in a more organized, team-oriented manner.