POLITICAL PARTIES

1. POLITICAL PARTIES • “Group of individuals, often having some measure of ideological agreement, who organize to win elections, operate government, and determine public policy” • “Team of men and women seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election” --Dahl

2. “Three-Headed Giant: Different Aspects of the Party • Party in the electorate (Label): • Certain conception in the minds of the voters • Membership not required • Number of independents rising a lot, and strong party ID is declining a little. • Split-ticket voting

3. “Three-Headed Giant: Different Aspects of the Party • Organization: • Recruit and campaign • Provide continuity between elections • State party system: • Closed primaries: only people who have registered in advance • Open primaries: allow voters to decide on election day • Blanket primaries: voters are allowed to select Democrats and Republicans • Political Machines and patronage

4. Political Machines • Patronage system which recruits members using money, political jobs, other political favors: • Political leader secures and retains the loyalty of his supporters and followers by rewarding them with public goods, such as official posts. • Patron: politician; Client: citizen wanting reward • "WANTED -- A GOVERNMENT CLERKSHIP at a salary of not less than $1,000 per annum. Will give $100 to any one securing me such a position.“ • Garfield assassinated by disappointed office seeker (Charles Guiteau)

5. Political Machines • The Pendleton Act (1883) (under Chester Arthur): • classified certain jobs and removed them from the patronage ranks • set up a Civil Service Commission to administer a system based on merit rather than political connections • Created a Civil Service Commission, a three-member, nonpartisan board to create and administer competitive examinations for applicants to low-level federal jobs • Stopped the practice of assessing federal workers a portion of their salary for the benefit of the political party that appointed them • Granted the president broad powers to apply civil service reform procedures to other classifications of federal workers.

6. Political Machines • Strong leadership control • Tended towards corruption • Hatch Act (1939): Illegal for federal employees to get involved formally with political campaigns • Federal employees can’t serve as party officers, solicit campaign funds, run for a partisan office, work on campaigns, endorse partisan candidates, take voters to polls, count votes. Can only vote and make contributions • As education increased and legislation passed, machines have declined in importance

7. “Three-Headed Giant: Different Aspects of the Party • Party in Government: • Set of leaders who try to control political agenda • Spokespersons and symbols for the party

8. Party Functions • Select candidates: “almost no one above the local level (and often not there) gets elected to public office without winning a party’s endorsement” • Run campaigns • Present an image to voters • Articulate and advocate policies • Coordinate policymaking

9. Downs Model • Voters want to maximize the chance that policies they favor will be adopted by the government • Parties want to win office • Therefore, parties select positions that are widely favored and may go to great lengths to win (kiss babies, negative advertising, etc….) • Median voter model

10. Strong party loyalty Centralized Nominated by party leaders Majority party selects executive (prime minister) Parliamentary system Weak party loyalty Decentralized Primary elections Separate Presidential election Separation of powers Why are American political parties weak? Britain vs. USA

11. Party identification and trends • No formal "membership" in American parties • Over the past 25 years: a decline of both parties and the increasing percentage Independents (mostly at the expense of the Democrats) • Almost every major social group (except African American voters) has moved toward a position of increased independence • African Americans have moved even more solidly into the Democratic party (currently only 5 percent of African Americans identify themselves as Republicans). • Traditionally, much of the Republican support has been the wealthy business class.

12. Party identification and trends • “Party identification remains strongly linked to the voter's choice, but ticket-splitting (voting with one party for one office and another for other offices) is near an all-time high.” • Those who still identify with a party are no longer as loyal in the voting booth as they once were. • As party identification increases, there is a greater interest in elections, higher voter turnout, and more straight-ticket voting. • Recent trends often results in divided government (often with Republican President and Democratic control of Congress)

13. Early views of parties • Madison: factions • Washington’s Farewell address: the “baneful effects of the Spirit of Party” • Jefferson: “If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all” • Ben Franklin: “infinite mutual abuse of parties, tearing to pieces the best of characters”

14. DEVELOPMENT OF PARTY SYSTEM

15. Republicans (Anti-Federalists), Democrat-Republicans, or Jeffersonians Jefferson, Madison, Monroe Rural support, popular in the South Purpose: defeat Adams and the Federalists Eventually “torn apart by factionalism” Federalists Hamilton, Adams Washington needed a coalition of factions to get legislation passed by Congress Domestic policy: national bank Foreign policy: “soft on Britain” Support by capitalists Quickly faded Founding (1789 – 1820s)

16. Jacksonian (1828 – 1856): Birth of national party system • Democratic-Republican became known as Democratic party • Westerners, Southerners, new immigrants, and settled Americans • Whigs opposed Jackson Democrats • Northern industrialists and Southern plantation owners • United by a common enemy (Democrats) more than by common ground

17. Jacksonian (1828 – 1856): Birth of national party system • Party convention replaces caucus • Caucus (members of Congress who nominate presidential candidate) system loses legitimacy after 1824 candidate got third place out of four candidates • Great increase in voting participation • Electors were selected by popular vote rather than by state legislators • Increased local control

18. Two Republican Eras (1860-1932): North South Division (1860-1896) • The Republican Party begins as a third party • Slavery split both parties • Union and anti-slavery supporters became Republicans in late 1850s • Confederate supporters or anti-Civil war became Democrats

19. Two Republican Eras (1860-1928): East-West Division (1896-1932) • Bryan, a Democrat, alienated northeastern Dems and attracted voters from South and Midwest, West (farmers, small towns, low tariffs, rural interests, fundamentalists protestants) with a populist platform • “Free silver” advocate: this would devalue money and help debtors since there was more silver than gold • Republicans: gold standard, industry, business, tariffs, industrialization, banks, high tariffs,industrial working class (Catholics and Lutherans who did not like fundamentalists, and “hostility toward liquor and immigrants”)

20. Divisions within the parties • At the end of the 19th Century, two different groups begin to emerge within the two parties, but ESPECIALLY in the Republican Party • Stalwarts- the Old Guard of the party. • Party machinery, party loyalty, patronage, WINNING is the primary interest. • Mugwumps (Progressives)- the reformers • Oppose emphasis on patronage, wanted to see the party take unpopular positions on issues like free trade, advocacy and articulation of issues, PRINCIPLE is the main interest.

21. The Era of Reform • Progressives realize that to have any power, they have to attack partisanship itself. • Favored primary elections over nominating conventions • Favored Nonpartisan elections at city level • Wanted strict voter registration requirements to reduce fraud • Civil service reform • In California, direct primary adopted in 1910-1911, as well as initiative and referendum

22. New Deal Coalition (1932-1964) • Urban dwellers: big cities (Chicago and Philadelphia) had been Republicans before • Labor Unions: FDR first president to endorse unions • Catholics and Jewish people • The poor: low turnout, but supported FDR and successors • Southerners: white Southerners maintained loyalty from before Civil War through New Deal (going to change in 1948.- Dixiecrats to Republicans) • African-Americans: Republicans lost this constituency • Intellectuals: few but provided many ideas for New Deal

23. New Deal Coalition (1932-1964) • JFK • Johnson’s Great Society and War on Poverty

24. Divided Government (1968- Present) • Nixon (1968) first time in 20th century that a newly elected president did not have his party in control of both houses of Congress • Happened again under Reagan and Bush • Clinton started out with both houses but lost that in 1994 • Both houses and the presidency controlled by same party houses for only 9.3 years form 1969 to 2005 • Party dealignment: moving away from both parties

25. Critical (Realigning) periods • 1800- Jeffersonians defeat the Federalists • 1828- Rise of Jacksonian Democrats • 1860- Whigs collapse and Republicans under Lincoln take power • 1896- Republicans defeat William Jennings Bryan and Populists/Democrats • 1932- New Deal Coalition and FDR

26. Decline of the Party • Proportion of people voting a split ticket increased until around 1980, and has slowly declined since, but is still higher than in the 1950s. • Key in this change is the switch to the office-bloc (Massachusetts) ballot from the party-column (Indiana) ballot. • Ticket splitting leads to DIVIDED GOVERNMENT. (White House and Congress are controlled by different parties.)

27. National Party Structure • National Convention: nominates president every four years • National Committee: • state delegates who meet between elections • Select time and place of next national convention • Issues a call for the convention: determines number of delegates for each state and the rules for how the delegates will be chosen • Congressional Campaign Committee: help incumbent or new legislators • National Chairman: day-to-day party duties, elected by CCC

28. 1. National Convention • Selects the presidential candidate • Formula for number and distribution of delegates • Reforms decreased power of party leaders • Democrat reforms toward more intraparty equity

29. What happens at a typical national convention? • First Day: Keynote speech—melds the past, present and future of the party with its goals and nominee(s) • Second Day: centers on party platform • Drafted prior to convention by a committee consisting of proponents of each candidate (in proportion to their strength) • If over 20% of committee disagrees on platform, they can bring an alternative minority plank to the convention floor for debate • Third Day: formally nominate candidate for president • One major speech about candidate and then others also speak about him/her • End of evening: states cast their ballots for the president • Usually, home state casts deciding number • Vice President chosen, but this is now a formality

30. 2. National Committee • State delegates who meet between elections (can include governors, members of Congress, other party officials, and others) • Select time and place of next national convention • Issues a call for the convention: determines number of delegates for each state and the rules for how the delegates will be chosen….

31. Formulas for determining number of delegates • Democrats: should a larger share of delegates come from south (solidly Democrat in the past) or the north and west (more liberal or larger states) • Large states are rewarded: • Vote each state cast in the past and number of electoral votes of each state • Republicans: (conservative) Midwest or (liberal East) • Loyal states are rewarded: • Number of representatives in Congress and if the state in past elections votes for the Republican president elected to the Senate, the House,and the governorship

32. How are delegates chosen? • Democrats (since 1972): • Tried to weaken local party leader control • Increase proportion of women, young people, African-Americans, and Native-Americans • As of 1988, Party leaders and 80% of elected officials(senators, house of representatives, governors) given delegate seats (superdelegates) • Superdelegates do not have to pledge to a candidate • Represent leftist wing of the liberal middle class • Republicans: represent more conservative wing of the traditional middle class (more closely represents most citizens)

33. 3. Congressional Campaign Committee: • help incumbent or new legislators running for office

34. 4. National Chairman: • Day-to-day party duties • Direct mailings • Public opinion polls • Fund raising • advertising • Elected by national committee

35. STATE AND LOCAL LEVEL: DIFFERENT TYPES OF POLITICAL PARTIES Where do candidates get their support?

36. Ideological Parties • Values principles above all else • Does not rely on money incentives • Contentious and Factional • Third parties: • Socialist/Socialist Workers • Libertarians • Right-to-life • Christian Coalition (within Republican party)

37. Solidary Groups • People who get together because of camaraderie and love of politics • Members like to be “in the know” • Former political machines, sometimes • Not corrupt or inflexible • Not very hard working

38. Sponsored Parties • Another organization, such as a union, creates or sponsors a political party • Not very common

39. Personal Following • Candidate must have an appealing personality, a lot of friends, or a big bank account • Kennedy dynasty • Bush family

40. Conclusion regarding parties • Only a few (8) states have traditional parties—hierarchical and based on material incentives, and capable of influencing who gets nominated (mostly in Northeast ) • Factional, traditional parties (5) • Weak party system of solidary clubs, personal followings, ideological groups and sponsored parties for all the rest

41. Why are there only two parties? • Single member district, plurality system • Duverger’s law • Cooptation: Major parties take the ideas of “third parties” and incorporate them into their platform • Umbrella Party—all encompassing

42. “First past the post” Winner take all Most votes Broad-based parties Electoral College Majority Runoff elections Narrow parties Plurality vs Proportional Representation

43. Proportional Rep Party A = 20 Party B = 30 Party C = 40 Party D = 10 Each party % of seats Plurality Party A = 20 Party B = 30 Party C = 40 Party D = 10 Party C wins all the seats Example

44. Third Parties • Ideological: a comprehensive view of society that is radically different from established parties • Socialist, Communist, Libertarian • Single-Issue: single policy and avoiding others • Free soil, Know-nothing, Prohibition • Economic Protest: protesting depressed economic conditions • Usually farmers in particular regions • Disappears when problems improve • Factional Parties: split in major party • Bull Moose, State’s Rights (Dixiecrats), American Independent, Reform Party (Perot)