• Political party:
– a group of persons
who seek to control
the government
through the
winning of elections
and holding of
public office.
• Another more specific definition is a political
party is a group of persons who want to control
government for what purpose?
– To affect certain public policies and programs
• The (2) major parties in the US do not fit this
definition; they are more election oriented.
• It is clear from American history that
political parties are essential to democratic
government.
• They are the medium through which
options are presented to the people.
• Parties are a link
between people and
their government.
• How do they work to
‘blunt’ conflict?
– Try to bring conflicting
groups together and
encourage
compromise.
• The major function of
a political party is to
nominate (or name)
candidates for public
office.
• Once a candidate is
nominated, what then
is the party’s function?
– WIN THE ELECTION !!
• Big job for political parties
is to inform the people.
• What are (3) examples of
this?
1. Campaign for candidates
2. Take stance on issues
3. Criticize candidates and
positions of opponents.
• Parties conduct this ‘educational’ process:
– through pamphlets, signs, buttons and
stickers
– with advertisements
– in speeches and rallies.
• In business, a bond is an agreement that
protects a person or company against loss
caused by a third party.
• EXPLAIN the ‘bonding agent’ function in politics:
– Parties ensure the good performance of its
candidates and officeholders.
• The party also prompts
it’s successful
candidates to perform
well in office.
• What happens if the
party fails with this?
– Party and its
candidates may
suffer consequences
in future elections.
• Congress and the
State legislatures are
organized on party
lines and they
conduct much of
their business on
the basis of
partisanship.
• Definition:
– Strong support of a political party and
their policies.
• In the complicated separation of powers
agreement, the executive and legislative
branches must cooperate with one another if
anything is to get accomplished.
• Political parties can help the two branches work
together.
• Parties act as
‘watchdogs’ over the
conduct of the
people’s business.
• When is this
particularly true?
– When a party is out of
power (does not
control the executive
branch)
• In American politics the
party in power is the
party that controls the
executive branch of
government
(President/national;
Governor/state)
• Party out of power plays
the role of ‘loyal
opposition’.
Loyal Opposition
• Definition:
– Opposed to the party in power but loyal
to the people and the nation.
• A minor party is one of the
many political parties
without wide voter
support.
• DESCRIBE the two-party in
American politics.
– Democrats and
Republicans are only
party that has reasonable
chance of winning public
office in US.
• A number of factors
help to explain why
America has had and
continues to have a
two-party system.
• There are four major
reasons that can
explain this:
• The Framers of the Constitution
were opposed to political parties.
• Argument over the
ratification of the
new Constitution.
1. Federalists
2. Anti-Federalists
•
DemocraticRepublicans
• Once established,
human institutions are
likely to be selfperpetuating.
• Why do most Americans
accept the idea of a twoparty system?
– Because there has
always been this
system!
• Several features of
the American
electoral system
to tend to
promote the
existence of the
two major parties:
• Single member
districts:
–contests in which
only one candidate
is elected to each
office on the
ballot.
• Definition:
– The largest number
of votes for an office.
– NOTE: a plurality
need not be a
majority (which is
more than half of all
votes cast)
• Much of American
election law is
purposely written to
discourage non-major
party candidates
• Republicans and
Democrats work in a
bipartisan (work
together) way.
• Definition:
– When both major political parties work
together on an issue.
• How do they major
parties make it
difficult for the
smaller ones?
– Election laws are
shaped to frustrate
the minor parties.
– Can’t get on ballot or
take part in debates.
• Over time, the American
people have shared many
of the same ideas, the
same basic principles, and
the same patterns of
belief.
• Americans are not alike;
the US is a pluralistic
society: one consisting of
several distinct cultures
and groups.
• Americans come to a consensus (a general
agreement among various groups) on
fundamental matters, but the nation has
been divided at times
• How has this ideological consensus made the
2 major parties look alike?
– Both parties tend to be moderate and try
to occupy “the middle of the road” to get
more voters.
• A system in which several
major and many lesser
parties exist, seriously
compete for, and actually
win, public offices –
European democracies.
• What are the parties in
this system based on?
– A particular interest.
• Weakness here is that
one party is often
unable to win the
support of a majority
of the voters.
• The result is that that
power to govern must
be shared by a number
of parties in a
coalition.
• DEFINE:
– A temporary
alliance of several
groups who come
together to form a
working majority
and so to control
government.
• The one-party system is really a NO PARTY
system.
• Usually found in dictatorships today.
• How can parts of the
United States be
described as ‘oneparty’?
– In certain parts of
the US, only one
political party has a
real chance to win.
• Membership in a party is purely voluntary –
an individual chooses to be a Democrat,
Republican, independent, or join a minor
party.
• The two major parties are broadly based in
order to attract as much support as they can
–they try to get a cross-section of
America’s population.
• Individuals identify
themselves with a
party for many reasons
with family as a keydeciding factor.
• It is also true that
certain segments of the
electorate tend to be
aligned with one of the
major parties – for a
time:
•
•
•
•
•
African-Americans
Women
Catholics and Jews
Union Members
Urban areas of
country
• Protestants
• Males
• Business
community
• Rural sections of
country
• Formed around Alexander
Hamilton.
• Appealed to financial,
manufacturing and
commercial interests.
• Wanted a strong national
government and executive.
• What was their view of the
Constitution?
– Liberal (loose) interpretation
• Key leader Thomas
Jefferson.
• Appealed to shopkeepers,
laborers, farmers and
planters.
• Wanted a limited national
government where Congress
would have more power.
• What was their view of the
Constitution?
– Strict interpretation
• Define:
–Current officeholder
• The history of the
American party
system since 1800
can be divided in
to (4) major
periods:
• Jefferson’s election in 1800 marked the beginning of
Democrat domination until the Civil War.
• When had the Federalists disappeared?
– Defeated in 1800, disappeared altogether by 1816
• By the mid-1820s, the
Democrats were
splitting up into
factions:
– Democrats
– Whigs
• FACTIONS are groups
with conflicting
interests.
• Andrew Jackson
• A coalition of farmers, debtors, frontier
pioneers and slaveholders. Support from South
and West.
• What were the (3) fundamental changes to
political landscape?
1. Voting rights for all white males
2. Increase in number of elected offices in US
3. Spread of spoils system (rewarding loyal party
members with offices, jobs, contracts)
• Henry Clay, Daniel Webster.
• A loose coalition of eastern
bankers, merchants and
industrialists, large
slaveholders.
• Were able to elect (2)
presidents based mainly on
what?
–Military records of
candidates
• By the 1850s the
growing crisis over
slavery split both major
parties and the
Republican Party was
founded in 1854.
• Ran John C. Fremont in
1856 for the
presidency.
• Starting with Lincoln, the GOP dominated the national
scene for 75 years starting with the Civil War.
• Who did the Republicans get support from?
– Business/financial interests and newly freed
slaves
• Crippled by the war, were able to survive mainly
through their hold on the “Solid South”.
• Worked to rebuild their base, but were only able to
elect a president twice – Grover Cleveland in 1884
and 1892
• WHY? Unprecedented prosperity in the country.
Republicans
Democrats
Candidate
William McKinley
William J. Bryan
Supporters
Big business, urban
areas of country
Farmers, labor unions,
small businesses
Key
Supported the GOLD
STANDARD
Supported the SILVER
STANDARD
Issue
• Electorate
– people eligible to
vote.
• Sectionalism
– emphasizes a
devotion to the
interests of a
particular region of
the country.
• Split the Republicans between incumbent
President Howard Taft and former president
Theodore Roosevelt.
• This split enabled whom to win the presidency
in 1912 and 1916?
– Democrat Woodrow Wilson
• However, the Republicans were able to win the
next (3) elections throughout the 1920s.
• The Great Depression returned the Democrats to
national prominence until 1968.
• What was their new electoral base?
– Southerners, unions, big-city political machines,
minorities
• Democrats controlled the
White House from 19321952; 1960-1968
• Who won the Republican’s
only (2) presidential
victories of this era?
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Starting with the election of 1968, neither
political party dominated national politics.
• The years since Richard Nixon’s election in
1968 have been marked by divided
government.
• Republican Richard
Nixon wins in 1968
• What were the
Democrats split over?
– The Vietnam War
• Independent candidate
George Wallace - last
minor party candidate to
win any electoral votes.
• Richard Nixon easily
wins reelection over
George McGovern
and the still divided
Democrats but is
forced to resign in
1974 (Watergate).
• Gerald Ford (who
took over for Nixon)
lost a close election
to Georgia governor
Jimmy Carter.
• What hurt Ford?
– His pardoning of
Richard Nixon
• Republicans back in power with two
landslide victories by Ronald Reagan.
• George HW Bush (Reagan’s Vice
President) wins over Michael Dukakis.
• Democrats regain
the Presidency with
2 victories by Bill
Clinton.
• What role did H.
Ross Perot play?
– Spoiler role
• Republicans and
George W. Bush win (2)
very close elections.
• Democrat Barack H. Obama wins historic
election and Democrats return to power.
• Define Divided
Government:
– One party controls
Executive Branch
(Presidency)
– Other party controls
the Legislative
Branch (Congress)
• The number and
variety of minor
parties make it difficult
to describe and classify
them.
• Some have limited
their efforts to a small
area or region; some
have tried to woo the
entire nation.
• Minor parties are
numerous in America.
• Often short lived, but
can play an important
role in the American
political process.
• There are (4) distinct
types of minor parties
in America….
What is this
type of party
based on?
Particular set of beliefs =
view of social, economic, and
political matters
Ideological
party
Examples:
Socialist,
Communist
Don’t get many
Votes and are
Short lived
Focus on one
issue
and their
Name is key
(3)
Major party
“borrows”
their idea
(2)
Fail to
attract
voters
Free Soil
Know Nothing
Right to Life
Single issue
Party
(1)
Events pass
Them by..
Rooted in
periods of
economic
unrest
Regional
parties:
West or
South
Greenback Party
Populist Party
Economic
Protest
Parties
Where is
their anger
focused?
Disgusted
with Major
Parties
Real or imagined
enemies = bankers
or monetary system
parties that
have split
away from
MAJOR
Splinter
Parties
usually fades
when leader
steps aside
Centered
around
Strong
Personality
• Even though Americans
do not support them,
minor parties still have
had an impact on the
major parties:
1. Spoiler Role
2. Role of critic and
innovator
• A strong 3rd party
candidate can play the
“spoiler role”
• EXPLAIN this role:
– Minor party candidate
takes votes from on of
the major parties and
can ‘spoil’ the
election.
• Minor parties take clear-cut stands on
controversial issues.
• Minor parties have brought attention to issues
that the major parties preferred to ignore or
straddle.
• How has the innovator role been a source of
frustration for minor parties?
– Major party takes idea and presents the idea
as their own.
• Both parties are highly
decentralized,
fragmented, disjointed,
and often beset by
factions and internal
squabbling.
• Local parties are often
loosely tied with the
State party; State parties
the same with the
National party.
• President’ s party is
usually more solidly
unified and more
cohesively organized
than the opposing
party.
• The President is
automatically the party
leader.
• How does he assert
that leadership?
1. Access to media
2. Popularity
3. Power to make
appointments to
federal office.
• Because the
governmental
system in the United
States is highly
decentralized
(elected offices at
many levels), so are
the political parties.
• The nominating process is also a major cause of
party decentralization and (2) aspects of this
process help to explain this:
1. Candidate selection is an intraparty process
2. What is the process like?
– Very divisive for a party – the fight can be
“bloody” and damaging
• The structure of both
major parties at the
national level has (4)
basic elements:
1.
2.
3.
4.
National Convention
National Committee
National Chairperson
Congressional
Campaign Committees
• Often described as the
party’s national voice,
it meets in the summer
of every presidential
election year.
• What does the
convention work on?
– Party rules and
platform
• Between conventions, the national committee
and national chairperson handle the party’s
affairs, at least in theory.
• Both parties have expanded the committee’s
membership in recent years: representatives
from states, territories, and other groups.
• Do these committees have any power?
– No real power
• Chairperson is the leader of the national
committee and is chosen by the committee for
a 4-year term.
• During presidential election year – Chair
works on the national convention and then
the campaign.
• What do the chairpersons do between the
presidential elections?
– Work to strengthen party by raising money
and recruiting new voters.
• These committees
work to reelect
incumbents and to
make sure that seats
given up by retiring
members remain in the
party.
• Also work to unseat
incumbents in the
other party.
• The two major
parties can also be
examined from a
social standpoint –
that is, in terms of
the various roles
played by their
members.
1. The Party Organization
• Party leaders, activists, and its hangers-on.
2. The Party in the Electorate
• Who makes up this component?
• Party loyalists who vote a straight ticket
3. The Party in Government
• These are the party’s officeholders, those that
hold elective and appointive offices in the
executive, judicial, or legislative branches.
• Political parties have
been in a period of
decline since the late
1960s.
• The present, weakened
state of the parties can
be traced to several
factors:
More Independents
Growing number of voters identify as Independent
Split-Ticket Voting
Voting for candidates of different parties at the
same election
Changes and Reform
Introduction of direct primary and campaign
finance laws have made parties more open.
Campaign Changes
Candidates less dependent on parties because
of television, internet, social media
Single-Issue organizations
Growth and power of these organizations has
weakened political parties.