Evolution of Political Parties in Democracy

1. Chapter 9 POLITICAL PARTIES

2. The Role of Political Parties in a Democracy • What are political parties? • They recruit and run candidates for public office under the party label. • They try to organize and coordinate the activities of government officials under the party name. • Many political scientists believe that parties are essential to democracy. • The political party is seen by some as the main instrument of popular sovereignty and majority rule. • When political parties are working properly, they can be essential tools of popular sovereignty.

3. How Parties and Majority Rule Are Related • Parties’ mobilizing activities can contribute to democracy by educating people about politics. • Elections create an incentive to include as many voters as possible, with a majority being the optimal goal. • Parties try to broaden their appeal by running candidates from many ethnic, racial, and religious groups. • Parties provide a way for the people to keep elected officials responsive and responsible through competitive elections. • Parties can make majority preferences effective.

4. The Two-party System • Most nations have either one-party systems or multiparty systems. • Most Western democracies have multiparty systems. • Two parties have dominated the political scene in the United States since 1836. • Democrats and Republicans have controlled the presidency and Congress since 1860.

5. History of the Two Party System • The first party system: Federalists versus Democratic Republicans • Parties were created almost immediately, even though the Founders were hostile to them in theory. • Federalists became tainted by certain actions, beginning with the Alien and Sedition Acts enacted to repress dissent and opposition to Federalist policies. • The two-party system evolved into a one-party or no-party system by 1816, generally known as the Era of Good Feelings.

6. The second party system: Democrats versus Whigs • A strong two-party system developed in the 1830s between the Democrats (formerly the Democratic Republicans) and the Whigs. • The Democrats and Whigs were very different parties from those in the first party system, brought about by a significant democratization of American life. • The Civil War split the parties: the northern and southern wings of each party mirrored the split in the nation.

7. From the Civil War to 1896: Republicans and Democrats in balance • Following Reconstruction, Republicans and Democrats were somewhat balanced in national politics. • Each party had a strong regional flavor

8. The party system of 1896: Republican party dominance • The late nineteenth century was a time of rapid economic and social change; protest movements and third parties developed. • Republicans dominated American politics from the 1896 election until the election of 1932. • After 1896, the rate of voter participation dropped sharply and never fully recovered. • The states of the deep South used intimidation and laws to remove blacks from the electorate, eliminating the Republican party as a factor in southern politics.

9. The New Deal system: Democratic party dominance • The New Deal party system grew out of the crisis of the Great Depression and favorable public reactions to government efforts to deal with the economic collapse. • The party system underwent a realignment (1932-1936) from Republican to Democratic dominance.

10. The sixth party system: dealignment and divided party government • The electoral coalition that formed the basis of the New Deal party system began to seriously deteriorate in 1968 and finally collapsed in 1994. • Other changes starting in 1968 suggest the formation of a sixth party system stretching from 1968 to at least 1994.

11. Realignment • Realignment means that a new party system has taken the place of the old because of a fundamental shift in the types of groups that support the parties. • Realignments seem to be triggered by the transformation of structural factors. • Realignments occur when the old party system is unable to accommodate or solve problems that develop during rapid social, economic, and cultural changes.

12. Dealignment • Some prefer the term dealignment to describe the increasing tendency of Americans not to claim any party identification at all. • Dealignment may be thought of as a transformation in the party system in which a previously dominant party loses preeminence but no new party takes its place.

13. Why a Two-party System? • Why does the United States have a two-party system when most Western democracies have multiparty systems? • Electoral rules • Restrictions on minor parties • Attitudes of the American public • The absence of a strong labor movement

14. The Place of Minor Parties in the Two-party System • Minor parties have played a less-important role in the United States than in virtually any other democratic nation. • In our entire history, only the Republican party has managed to replace one of the major parties.

15. Types of minor parties • Protest parties • Ideological parties • Single-issue parties • Splinter parties

16. The role of minor parties • Minor parties may articulate and popularize new ideas that are eventually taken over by one or both major parties. • Minor parties may allow people with grievances to express themselves in a way that is not possible within the major parties. • Because minor parties are not likely to win national elections, they are usually not as cautious as the major parties.

17. The Parties as Organizations • In most democratic countries, parties are fairly well-structured organizations. • Led by party professionals • Committed to a set of policies and principles. • They tend to have clearly defined membership requirements, centralized control over nominations and financing, and discipline over party members who hold political office.

18. The ambiguous nature of American parties • American parties are composed of many diverse and independent groups and individuals. • Presidents cannot automatically count on the support of their own party. • Vagueness of party membership • Decentralized organization of the two major parties

19. The Primacy of Candidates • American politics is candidate centered • Candidates have independent sources of campaign financing, their own campaign organizations, and their own campaign themes and priorities. • The party can do very little about nominees who oppose party leaders and reject national party platforms and policies. • Candidates are now almost exclusively nominated in primaries or grass roots caucuses, where the party organizations have little influence.

20. Contrast with politics in European countries • People in most European countries vote for parties rather than for individual candidates. • Independent candidates cannot force themselves on the party through primaries or caucuses. • In countries like Germany, the campaign is waged between parties and their alternative programs, not between individual candidates.

21. Party Goals • Parties want to win elections, but each component of the highly decentralized and fragmented party organizations tends to have its own goals. • Party activists — the people who do the most important organizational work of the parties, such as fund-raising and serving as delegates to party conventions

22. Party officeholders — above all, they want to retain their positions or attain higher office • Party voters — reflect a diversity of views and goals • Party financial contributors — diverse in their goals

23. Ideology and Program • An ideology is an organized set of beliefs about the fundamental nature of the good society and the role government ought to play in achieving it. • The Republican and Democratic parties are both broad coalitions, seeking to attract as many individuals and groups as possible. • There are strong pressures on the parties to be ideologically ambiguous in order to win in winner-take-all, single-member-district elections.

24. Each party has a core of supporters who are more ideologically oriented than the general public. • The party system is less ideologically focused compared to parties in other democratic countries, but still with significant differences between them • The evidence indicates that the differences between Democrats and Republicans are real, important, and enduring, and that the differences are becoming more distinctive.

25. How Are the Parties Different? • In the perceptions of the electorate • In terms of who supports them • In their political platforms • In the positions taken by party activists • In the policy decisions of their elected representatives

26. Are the parties becoming more ideological? • The Republican party became more consistently conservative after the mid-1970s. • The Democratic party is less ideologically coherent than the Republican party.

27. The Parties in Government • The parties in government refers to government officials who have been elected under the party’s label. • To avoid tyrannical government, the Founders designed a system of government in which power is so fragmented and competitive that effectiveness is unlikely. • One of the roles that political parties play is to persuade officials in the different branches to cooperate with one another on the basis of party loyalty.

28. Divided Party Government • Divided party government occurs when the executive and legislative branches are held by opposing political parties. • Long-term party division between the presidency and Congress exaggerates the problems caused by the constitutional separation of powers. • Divided government adds to the gridlock and paralysis that are built into the constitutional design of our system of government. • Divided party control can give rise to a state of perpetual conflict between the two branches.

29. Parties in the Electorate • Parties in the electorate refers to individuals who are supporters of the party. • Partisanship is declining among the American electorate. • Americans are less inclined to identify with either of the parties than they were in the past.