Political Parties

1. Political Parties Chapter 5

2. Parties and What They Do A political party is a group of persons who seek to control government through the winning of elections and the holding of public office Have common principles and beliefs on public policy The two major parties in America are the Republicans and the Democrats

3. Parties and What They Do What do parties do? They develop broad policy Present options to the people Make the peoples� will heard Work to blunt conflict, make compromises on issues to avoid either extremist from gaining control

4. Parties and What They Do Nominating Candidates This is the major function of a political party Party selects candidate and presents them to the voters Almost exclusively found in the US, sets political parties apart from other political groups Informing and Activating Supporters Campaign via ads, TV, radio, newspapers Try to educate you on their opinions

5. Parties and What They Do Bonding Agent Function Political party acts as �bonding agent� to ensure their candidate is of good character and well qualified for the job Governing Sometimes people are elected because they are apart of a particular party This is due to partisanship�the strong support of their party and its policy stance

6. Parties and What They Do Acting as Watchdog Parties watch over public�s business Particularly true of the party that is out of power They watch the party that is in power The party in power is the one who holds the executive branch (president at the national level, governor at the state level) Which party is in power at the federal level? Which party has the power over FL?

7. The Two-Party System Minor parties are those without wide voter support Republicans and Democrats make up the two-party system in the US Meaning, either candidate has a reasonable chance of winning office Sometimes a party will have control over a region for a period of time, but eventually changes occur The South from post-Civil War to the 1960s was predominately Democrat Who do they vote for today?

8. The Two-Party System The two-party system is rooted into the beginnings of the nation While the Framers wanted union, people were divided into the Federalists and Anti-Federalists Washington warned against breaking into parties in his Farewell Address The Constitution has no provisions about political parties

9. The Two-Party System The Force of Tradition Simply put, America has a two-party system because American has always had a two-party system The Electoral System In most places around the country you have a single-member district meaning winner takes all The candidate who receives a plurality of the vote (largest number of votes) wins the office

10. The Two-Party System American Ideological Consensus While American is a pluralistic society�one consisting of several distinct cultures and groups; we also have a broad consensus�a general agreement among various groups on fundamental matters This is not to say that there are not differences between the parties Democrats support social welfare programs, government regulation of business practices, efforts to improve the status of minorities Republicans support private market forces and less government involvement in social programs

11. The Two-Party System Some people argue that we should go to a multiparty system as used in many European countries Tend to not produce broad, more diverse representation (leads to instability in government) Sometimes they will form coalitions (temporary alliances of several groups to form a working majority) Italy is an example of the negative of the multiparty system�it has had on average one new government per year since WWII

12. The Two-Party System One-party systems are also known as �no party� or dictatorships Party Membership Patters Membership is voluntary Each party has representatives from all groups of people (Catholic, African Americans, farmers, young people, etc) See chart on p. 124 for Political Party Resources

13. The Two-Party System in American History The first parties developed over whether to ratify the Constitution The Federalists (supported Constitution, strong central government and Hamilton�s economic plan) Lost power after the election of 1800 The Anti-Federalists (against Constitution and economic plan, supported limited federal government) Change their name to the Republican-Democrats and then in 1828 became the Democrats

14. The Two-Party System in American History There are 4 major era�s for the political parties: Era of the Democrats 1800-1860 Era of the Republicans 1860-1932 Return of the Democrats 1932-1968 Era of Divided Government 1968-current Please read section 3 on your own, this is just a brief overview

15. The Minor Parties Minor parties have played a vital role in many elections While they may never win a presidential election, they can keep candidates from winning (called a �spoiler role�) There are four types of minor parties: Ideological Single-issue Economic protest Splinter parties

16. The Minor Parties Ideological parties: Typically based in Marxism; parties included are Socialist and Communists, and Libertarian Libertarians believe in individualism and doing away most of the government�s functions and programs Single-Issue parties: Focus on a single issue such as abortion or prohibition Examples include the Right to Life Party and the Prohibition Party

17. The Minor Parties Economic Protest parties (most common): Rather than having suggestions, this party typically just says they are tired of the current parties economic policies Examples include the Populist party and the Greenback Party (all fade out after the economic situation gets better) Splinter parties: Split away from major parties such as the �Bull Moose� Party (T.R. created his own after Republicans gave their nomination to Taft) The Progressive Party came from a division of Democrats

18. Party Organization Neither of the major parties are well organized from the national level down to the local level Typically have a lot of factions and internal squabbling Frequently, the groups within the parties do not work well with each other

19. Party Organization The President is automatically leader of his party The party not in power is usually without any form of a leader A number of people in the opposing party compete with one another for identifiable leadership

20. Party Organization Both parties have four basic elements to their structure on the national level: The National Convention The National Committee The National Chairperson The Congressional Campaign

21. Party Organization The national convention meets in the summer of a presidential election year to nominate the presidential and vice-presidential candidates They also write party rules and platform here The national committee is the group who handles the party�s affairs between conventions

22. Party Organization The national chairperson is the leader of the national committee (4 year term, nominated by the presidential candidate and ratified by the committee) The congressional campaign committees are committees within Congress (each house has one for each party) that work towards getting/keeping seats for their party (chosen by colleagues serve for 2 years)

23. Party Organization States are divided into congressional districts (this is how we determine Congressperson we are voting for)

24. Party Organization Cities and districts are divided into wards (this is how we vote for city council, school board, etc) Wards are divided into precincts (which is the smallest unit and determines where you go to cast your vote)

25. Party Organization Political parties have never been very popular but have been viewed as evil necessities Reasons for decline of parties: Few people want to be recognized as Republican or Democrat, so now they are independent Split-ticket voting�voting for candidates of different parties More �open� parties leading to internal conflicts Use of media for campaign makes candidates speak to constituents rather than to parties Growth of single-issue organizations