Political Parties Today
The party’s task:
• Party: a group of people who try to control
government policy by fielding candidates for
elective office
• The party’s goal: winning elections
• Party organizations exist to solve collective action
problems, specifically voters’ free rider problem
• Party organizations themselves are subject to the
free rider problem!!!
Selective incentives that can be
offered to party workers
• Material
• Solidary
• Expressive/Purposive
How have the selective
incentives available to the parties
changed over time?
Spoils System party
organizations
• Decentralized
• Effective, Manpower-based organizations
• More pragmatic
Questions about Parties today
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Who works for the parties today?
Why do they do it?
What do they contribute?
How do parties mobilize voters and win
elections?
Comparison of early and modern parties
19th century parties
21st century parties
• Decentralized
• More centralized
• Manpower org’s
• Expertise/service orgs
• Pragmatic
• More ideological
National party structure
• National party committee (DNC, RNC)
• Separate state organizations
• Hill committees
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National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC)
National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC)
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC)
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC)
Finance Restrictions
• Raising Money
• Individual Contributions to state, district
and local party committees - $10,000
• Individual Contributions to national party
committees - $25,000 per year
• PAC contributions to national committees $15,000 per year
Finance Restrictions
• Spending Money:
• Limit of $5000 to House candidates
• Limit of $35,000 to Senate candidates
• Coordinated expenditures: ~$30,000 House,
~$60,000 Senate (varies with population), ~$16
million Presidential
• Unlimited independent expenditures
– cannot coordinate any aspect of the timing, content, placement or
use of these expenditures with their candidates
What does that add up to??
Ad-hoc organizations
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No unified set of priorities
Party “stands” controlled by the candidates
Platform not binding on elected officials
No top down control
Local organizations controlled by part time
volunteers with little training and varied
skill
Why so disorganized?
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Election orientation
Federalism
Separation of Powers
Primaries
Election of party officials
Campaign finance laws
Party features
• Prominent in voters’ decisionmaking
• Candidates seek their brand identification
• Decentralized organizations
• Loose coalitions
So how might we expect political
parties to behave in this year’s
midterm elections?
Where will we see their effects?