


Parties are not mentioned in the Constitution
George Washington (the only nonpartisan
president) thought parties were a terrible idea.
However, parties sprang up almost
immediately after our political system came
into being




Welch, p. 153
1789: Federalists (pro-Constitution) vs. AntiFederalists (anti-Constitution)
1796: Federalists (Hamilton, northern
mercantile interests) vs. DemocraticRepublicans (Jefferson, southern agrarians)
1815: Federalists die out as a party, brief nonpartisan “Era of Good Feeling”



1828: Democratic-Republicans split into
National Republicans (John Quincy Adams)
and Democrats (Andrew Jackson); the
Jacksonian party is the direct ancestor of
today’s Democratic Party
1832-1850’s: Whigs compete with Democrats
1856: Republican Party formed by different
groups of Midwestern anti-slavery activists;
this is the direct ancestor of today’s Republican
Party



1877: End of post-Civil War Reconstruction,
Democratic ex-Confederates regain power in
the South and essentially eliminate the
Republican Party there
1896: Realignment: Republicans become the
majority party everywhere except the South
1932: Realignment: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s
election establishes the Democrats as the new
majority party; African-American voters begin
to shift their loyalty from the party of Lincoln
to the party of FDR

1950’s-1960’s: The Republican Party begins to
re-emerge in the South. By the 1990’s, it is the
clear majority party among white Southerners,
who were traditionally the most Democratic
group in the nation. Black Southerners (and
black voters nationally) remain
overwhelmingly Democratic.



The US has had the same two major parties for
150 years. This is an extraordinarily stable
political system, just as having the same
Constitution since 1789 has given us an
extraordinarily stable system of government.
By comparison, France adopted its current
Constitution and party system in 1958
The countries of Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union have developed completely new
political systems since the fall of Communism
in the late 1980’s-early 1990’s.



Most US political discourse takes place around the
center of the political system, with Democrats
slightly to the left of center and Republicans
slightly to the right of center.
More extreme ideologies (communism, fascism)
have never gained traction in the US
Americans’ self-described ideology (Welch, p. 142):
Moderate 32%
 Slightly liberal + liberal + extremely liberal 26%
 Slightly conservative + cons. + extremely cons. 44%
 Moderate + slightly liberal + slightly conservative 59%


Single-member districts


Only one person is elected from an area (Congressional
district, state legislative district, etc.)
Winner-take-all elections






The one person who gets the most votes wins the whole
thing.
In the 2008 presidential election, Obama got 52% of the
vote and McCain got 45%.
McCain does not get to be President 45% of the time.
Majority: the most votes
Plurality: the most votes in an election involving more
than two people, even if not a majority
1992: Clinton 43%, Bush 38%, Perot 19%
2010 (6 Districts)
1: 65%R, 29%D, 6% Others = 1 R
2: 53%R, 44%D, 3% Others = 1 R
3: 62%R, 36%D, 2% Others = 1 R
4: 63%R, 29% D, 8% Others = 1 R
5: 55%R, 45%D = 1 R
6: 63% D, 36%R = 1 D
Total votes cast 1,337,008
R 753,932 =56% votes, 83% seats
D 543,921 = 41% votes, 16% seats
O 39,155 = 3% votes, 0% seats





Many different types of PR systems, used in
different countries, e.g., Germany, Britain, Israel
A group of people, usually selected by a party,
runs for a group of seats (multi-member districts)
The party’s percentage of the vote translates into
their percentage of the seats
Example: Seven US House seats
Voters vote for parties, not individual candidates




Republicans get 53% of the vote = 4 seats
Democrats get 38% of the vote = 2 seats
Libertarians get 9% of the vote = 1 seat
It is considerably easier for minor parties to win seats
under PR than under SMD



Winning the party nomination for President
requires appealing to the activists in your party.
These people tend to be more ideologically
extreme: Democratic activists are more liberal than
the average voter, and Republican activists are
more conservative than the average voter
Then you have to appeal both to the party base
and to moderates in order to win the general
election.
Candidates tend to run as more ideologically
extreme during the primaries and more moderate
during the general election.





A primary election is held among candidates of the
same party to win the party nomination for an
office. The party nominees run against each other
in the general election in November.
Open primary: All registered voters may vote.
Closed primary: Only voters who are registered as
party members may vote (only D’s vote in the D
primary, only R’s in the R primary)
Modified closed: Registered party members +
independents may vote (D + I, but not R, in the D
primary, R + I, but not D, in the R primary)
States such as South Carolina, which do not
register voters by party, can’t have a closed
primary.

A couple of states have variations on these
systems
Louisiana: Top two finishers in the primary,
regardless of party, run against each other in the
general election (may be two D or two R)
 Washington: All candidates run against each other in
the same primary, top finisher in each party
competes in the general election
 Runoff primaries: In nine Southern states, if no
candidate gets a majority in the primary, the top two
candidates have an additional election called a
runoff; this is also true in NC but the threshold is
40%



Most states use primary elections to select delegates to the
national conventions which choose the party nominees for
president and vice president
Caucuses are party organizational meetings. Some states
(e.g., Iowa) use a caucus system to select their delegates






This involves attending a series of party meetings and being
elected as a delegate to each meeting at a higher level
Precinct caucus = held at your neighborhood polling place
County convention = delegates from precinct caucuses
Congressional district convention = delegates from counties in a
CD
State convention
National convention


We don’t have a national election for President
and Vice President. We have 51 separate state
elections (including DC)
Each state has a number of electoral votes equal
to its number of Senators + Representatives



Wyoming: 2 Sens. + 1 Rep. = 3 electoral votes
California: 2 Sens. + 53 Reps. = 55 electoral votes
Under the Constitution, each state legislature
determines how its electors are chosen





Each state + DC now has a law that electors are chosen
by popular vote
BUT there is no right to vote for president under the
US Constitution
The Florida legislature could simply have elected the
state’s electors to solve the 2000 controversy – the
popular vote wouldn’t have mattered at all
In all states but two, the candidate who gets the most
popular votes gets all the electoral votes
In Maine and Nebraska, the candidate who gets the
most votes in each congressional district gets one vote
and the winner of the state as a whole gets two –
Obama got 1 vote in Nebraska in 2008 while McCain
got the rest




The candidate who gets the most electoral
votes wins
Usually the same as the candidate who gets the
most popular votes
Four times in US history, one candidate has
gotten more popular votes and the other has
gotten the most electoral votes
Didn’t happen between 1888 and 2000
BUSH





CT (8) 561,094
FL (25) 2,912,790
HI (4) 137,845
MO (11) 1,189, 924
RI (4) 130,555
GORE





816,015
2,912,253
205,286
1,111,138
249,508
BUSH







CT (8) 561,094
FL (25) 2,912,790 *
HI (4) 137,845
MO (11) 1,189, 924 *
RI (4) 130,555
Pop vote 4,932,208
Electoral vote 36
GORE







816,015 *
2,912,253
205,286 *
1,111,138
249,508 *
5,294,200
16





The states that get the attention are the big,
competitive, “swing” states (e.g., Ohio)
No point in campaigning in states where one
candidate will win handily
SC is heavily R, DC heavily D
Romney doesn’t need to campaign in SC to win
here, and there is no point in Obama
campaigning here because he won’t win
anyway
The reverse is true in DC

http://ivn.us/neutralzone/2012/10/25/what-happens-if-there-isan-electoral-votetie/?fb_action_ids=895374166286&fb_action_ty
pes=og.likes&fb_source=timeline_og&action_o
bject_map=%7B%22895374166286%22%3A2360
43489858390%7D&action_type_map=%7B%228
95374166286%22%3A%22og.likes%22%7D&acti
on_ref_map=[]








The electors meet in December.
The votes are reported to Congress.
The votes are counted at a joint session of the
House and Senate.
If no one gets a majority, the House elects the
President and the Senate elects the Vice President.
The House votes by state: Each state, regardless of
population, gets one vote
Wyoming’s one representative gets one vote
California’s 55 representatives get one vote, total
States whose Reps. are equally split between D and
R probably don’t vote





The Republicans are currently the majority of a
majority of House delegations. If this is the case after
the elections, a majority of state delegations in the
House would vote to elect Romney as president.
Senators vote individually for Vice President. If the
Democrats regain control of the Senate, a majority of
Senators would probably vote to elect Biden as vice
president.
If there’s a tie in the Senate, the incumbent VP breaks
the tie. Biden could break the tie to re-elect himself.
Result: President Romney, Vice President Biden
The 12th Amendment was adopted specifically to
prevent a president and vice president from opposite
parties from serving together. It’s worked ever since.