POL 3162
Introduction to American Politics
POLITICAL PARTIES
SHANG E. HA
SOGANG UNIVERSITY
Overview
 APT, Chapter 7
 How are parties organized in the United States? (How
has the American party system developed over time?)
 What are the characteristics of modern American
political parties?
 Why parties? What is the role of political parties in
American politics?
 Why do minor parties (if any) exist? What influence do
they have on American politics?
Two Major Political Parties in the US
What Are Political Parties?
 Political parties – organizations that run
candidates for political office and coordinate the
actions of officials elected under the party banner.

American political parties are best described as a collection of
nodes (not unified organizations with party leaders at the top,
workers in the middle, and citizen-members at the bottom)
 Nodes – Groups of people who belong to, are
candidates of, or work for a political party, but do not
necessarily work together or hold similar policy
preferences
Three Pieces of American Political Parties
 Party Organization – A specific political party’s
leaders and workers at the national, state, and local
levels
 Party in government – The group of officeholders
who belong to a specific political party and were
elected as candidates of that party
 Party in the electorate – The group of citizens
who identify with a specific political party
History of American Political Parties
The First Party System, 1789–1828

Federalists vs. Jeffersonian Republicans
 The Federalists were the party of Hamilton and Adams and
(implicitly) Washington.
 The Jeffersonian “Democratic-Republicans” were the party of
Jefferson and Madison.

The Federalists wanted
• a strong central government
• a national bank
• high tariff barriers to protect infant industries
•
The Jeffersonian “Democratic-Republicans”
• free trade (to facilitate their agricultural economy) and
• they also feared the concentration of power in the hands of a
national government.
The Second Party System, 1829–1856

Democrats vs. Whigs
1.
The spoils system, the practice of rewarding party
supporters with benefits like federal government positions.
(Reforming the spoils system would be a major issue in the
Progressive Era of the early 20th century.)
• Federalists were gone; “Democratic-Republicans” were
transformed into the Democratic Party; the Whigs emerged
*Political Machine: Unofficial patronage system that tried to acquire
political power, government jobs, contracts, and the like for party leaders
and supporters
2. Another
era.
issue was slavery, which could not be resolved in this
The Third Party System, 1857–1892

Republicans vs. Democrats

The conflict over slavery split the Whigs and ultimately
destroyed them, replacing that party with the antislavery Republicans. (that means Democrats were proslavery)

Only the Civil War would end slavery, but official
racism in the South would continue through
Reconstruction and the transformation of the
American economy during industrialization.

Overall, Republicans dominated the Third Party
System.
The Fourth Party System, 1893–1932

Republicans and Democrats

The rise of William Jennings Bryan in the Democratic Party
marked the reshaping of that party, even though he lost the
1896 and 1900 and 1908 elections. (Bryan captured the spirit
of the Progressive era.)
•
Bryan generally favored a large and active federal government.
(AND more importantly, support policies to aid farmers and
working class city dwellers)
•
The key issues of the Fourth Party system were the nature of
industrialization and the assimilation of America’s swelling
immigrant population.
•
Republicans continued to dominate during this era.
The Fifth Party System, 1933–1968

Republicans v. Democrats

The New Deal Coalition – The assembly of groups who
aligned with and supported the Democratic Party in support of
the New Deal policies during the Fifth Party System, including
African-Americans, Catholics, Jews, labor union members, and
white southerners. (remember Franklin D. Roosevelt [a.k.a.,
FDR])

•
Democrats believed that large-scale federal intervention could help the
economy grow faster, run more smoothly while also protecting “the
little guy.”
•
Republicans thought that the federal government was usurping roles
traditionally held by the state and local government with no proof that
the federal government could do much better.
Democrats dominated the Fifth Party system.
History of Political Parties: Roosevelt
The Sixth Party System, 1969-present

Republicans v. Democrats

Key issues were civil rights, affirmative action, abortion,
social welfare (e.g., Medicare and Medicaid) and war (and
other foreign intervention).
•
•

Neither party has been dominant.
Both the Republicans and the Democrats became Parties in
service.
Parties in service – The role of the parties in recruiting,
training, contributing to, and campaigning for
congressional and presidential candidates. (Candidatecentered politics)
Realignment
 A change in the size or composition of the party
coalitions or in the nature of the issues that divide
the parties.
 A good example: White Southerners
 “Democrat”
during the Civil War
 Now “Republican”
Republican and Democratic Brand Names
Political Parties: Issue Differences between the Republican
and Democratic Parties
Ideology of the Parties in Government:
83rd House and 113th House
Party Organization
•
The National Committee is a party’s principal organization,
comprised of party representatives from each state.
•
PACs (political action committees) – Interest groups or
divisions of interest groups that can raise money to contribute
to campaigns or to spend on ads in support of candidates.
•
527 organizations – Named after the section of the tax code
that governs them, 527 groups 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.
The Limits of Party Organizations
 Party committees are non-hierarchical; thus the
DNC or RNC is ultimately controlled by the
committee members, not the chair.
 Unable to compel state and local parties to do
particular things; e.g. state and local parties often
adopt platforms that take positions that are
relatively “extreme” or out-of-line with the
national party.
The Party in the Electorate
Party Coalitions
The groups who identify
with a party, often described
in demographic terms:
NASCAR dads, African
Americans, Soccer moms,
Evangelical Christians.
 Activist
Someone who spends their
own time, effort, and money
in supporting a political
party or individual
Candidate.

Party Identification Trends
The Impact of Party Identification on Vote Decisions in the
2012 Presidential Election
Parties in Politics
Parties and Campaigns
 Parties can help democracy by
- putting qualified folks on the ballot
- helping them win election
- giving citizens clear choices
- getting citizens to vote, etc.
• Parties are made up of people who are
interested in winning first and the goals
mentioned above second.
• Differences within and between parties and
differences between regions make it impossible for
all party candidates to work together on all aspects of
the party platform in an election.
Campaign Platforms
 A party platform – the list of pledges and
promises about what candidates from a party stand
for and will fight for if elected; however, candidates
are not required to support the party platform, and
many ignore key provisions of it (e.g., pro-gun
Democrats).
Parties in Flux
•
Unified government – A situation in which one party holds
a majority of seats in the House and Senate and the president is
a member of the same party.
•
Party in power – Under unified government, the party that
controls the House, Senate, and the presidency. Under divided
government, the president’s party.
•
Divided government – A situation in which the House,
Senate, and presidency are not controlled by the same party,
such as if Democrats hold the majority of House and Senate
seats, and the president is Republican.
•
Parties are strongest when the are internally homogenous
(unified within) and externally heterogeneous (polarized from
the other party)
Cooperation in Government

Developing Agendas


Coordination


What proposals should the parties offer in Congress?
 Health care reform, economic stimulus package,
environmental protection, etc
Negotiation between the parties in Congress regarding certain
proposals
Accountability (reward and punish government actions
based on the performances)

The Responsible Party: A system in which each political party’s
candidates campaign on the party platform, work together in office
to implement the platform, and are judged by voters based on
whether they achieve the objectives. (NEVER existed in American
Politics)
Minor Parties
Minor Party: A History
 In the 1968 Presidential Election, George Wallace
(American Independent Party) received about 13% of the
popular vote nationwide (more than 9 million votes)
 Ross Perot (Reform Party) won 8.4% (about 8 million
votes) of the popular vote in 1996 and 18.2% (about 19
million votes) in 1992
 Ralph Nader (Green Party) won 5% of the popular vote in
the 2000 Presidential Election

Ralph Nader received almost 100,000 votes in Florida (while Bush
won Florida by only a few hundred votes after a disputed recount)
The 1968 Presidential Election
Duverger’s Law
The principle that in a democracy with single-member
districts and plurality voting, like the U.S., only one of the two
parties’ candidates will have a realistic chance of winning
political office.
(not applied to the US presidential election due to the
electoral college system)
 Single-member districts – An electoral system in which
every elected official represents a geographically defined area
and each area elects one representative.
 Plurality voting – A voting system in which the candidates
who receives the most votes within a geographic area wins the
election regardless of whether that candidate wins a majority
of the votes.
Should Parties Choose Their Candidates? (Primary Elections)
Types of Primaries and Caucuses