1. Constitution Didn't Say Anything About Parties

POLITICAL PARTIESW95

INTRODUCTION

1.Constitution didn't say anything about parties

to extent that Founders thought about parties at all, it was in a negative light: Madison warned, in the Federalist Papers, of the “mischief of faction”

viewed parties as cause of division and, potentially,

majority tyranny

and yet they developed rather quickly out of the practical nature of politics (sides pitted against each other) but there did not exist any guidelines or rules about their activity or how they should be formed

some party scholars today have a much higher opinion of political parties

E.E. Schattschneider: “democracy is unthinkable save in terms of parties.” (1942)

more recently, Morris Fiorina: “the only way collective responsibility has ever existed, and can exist, given our institutions, is through the agency of the political party; in American politics, responsibility requires cohesive parties.” (1980)

think of parties as the organizing glue of American politics:

they hold the system -- institutions and citizens -- together by virtue of how they provide an organizational framework for politics

Parties organize the political system, provide coherence and linkages btw the institutions of gov’t and the citizenry

parties organize politics for those who hold office

elected officials team up by party when in office

within institutions (e.g., Repubs in Congress)

and between institutions (Clinton and Dems. in Congress)

parties organize politics for activists who don’t hold office

few people who want to be politically active do so by creating their own organizations from scratch

instead, they usually work in an existing org -- and the largest and most common of those orgs is the political party (at Fed., state, or local levels)

parties organize politics for the average citizen

parties help make sense of otherwise confusing political world

who’s on what side? what’s my view on various issues?

-- for most people, parties provide an organizing framework that helps them come to terms with these questions

so parties play a major role in American democracy -- they are the #1 political intermediary linking those who govern with the governed, and as such are the instrument thru which accountability is effected

and, they structure politics at all levels -- among leaders, activists, and citizens alike

we’ll do some nuts and bolts stuff on parties, but then we’ll turn to the interesting substantive questions

in particular: given their importance to American democracy, should we be concerned by the fact that parties may be in serious decline?

WHAT IS A POLITICAL PARTY

1. Definition of Political Party:

At a very basic level a political party is a group of office holders, candidates, activists, and voters who identify with a group label and seek to elect to public office individuals who run under that label (from O'Connor and Sabato).

2. Notice that this definition of party identifies three different types of people who make up the party

(a) party in government: office holders and candidates who run for office under the party banner or with the party label

we hear about the Democratic party or Republic party doing something in Congress - this means those officials who ran for and hold office under the label of the particular party

(b) party as organization: the workers and activists who staff the party's formal organization; see it at the national level and the local and state levels

we hear about Democrats or Republicans engaging in campaign activity in a state - talking about the groups of individuals who are party activists, not officials or voters

(c) party-in-the-electorate: voters who think of themselves as associated with the party ; individuals who identify with a party (have party identification)

after elections, we hear that Democrats supported so and so - these are voters who belong to a particular party

4. Note that these categories are not mutually exclusive.

BRIEF HISTORY OF AMERICAN PARTIES

1.we've had generally five party systems in this country

2.The idea of a party system is that there exists at one time a set of parties (usually two major parties, in this country) that the people identify with and call their own that can be identified by a set of issues that are important and efforts to put candidates in office who will address those issues.

Times change as we go through history, people change and different issues become more or less important to us, and politics changes accordingly -- including political parties

When times change fairly dramatically from the time before, when people change in the way they view politics (generational change) and in what they think is important, and, as a conseqeunce, they vote for different candidates, often from different parties, than they have before -- thus, they change their party identifications --> REALIGNMENT

3. Party systems in the US

a.Start with the first two parties that emerged from the Constitutional Convention: Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans (Anti-Federalists)

Existed until 1815 when the Federalists essentially disappeared and the Jeffersonian Republicans split into two: National Republicans and Jacksonian Democrats

NOTE: not a realignment -- no radical changes in the way people viewed politics, in the issues that were important to them, just in labels (not enough to constitute a realignment) --> Era of Good Feelings

b.Second party system was created by a massive shift in political views -- National Republicans looked less and less like the Jacksonian Democrats over time. Changed their views radically, became the party of the elites, big business, concerned with monied interests and changed their name to the Whigs.

Jacksonian Democrats were the party of the common man -- mobilized the masses and brought them into politics. Dominated politics, this party did

Issue: Class; people reorganized themselves along this dimension

c.Third party system replaced the second with the coming of the Civil War and the issue of slavery (and states' rights). With the election of Abraham Lincoln, the Whig party died, the Republican party rose up and took control of government from the Democrats.

Issue: slavery: people reorganizing from previous divisions --> Republicans party of North (liberal on this issue) and Democrats party of South (conservative on issue)

d. Fourth party system replaced third with onset of economic depression. Names of parties remained the same but

Issue: economic recovery with people reorganizing not on the basis of their positions on slavery, but on their positions about economy

Democrats becoming Republicans, Republicans becoming Democrats -- suddenly, the two parties stand for radically different issue positions

Republicans still majority, but different majority than before: fiscally conservative rather than morally liberal

e.Finally, fifth party system began with another economic depression, the Great Depression

Issue: economy -- people again reorganized with Democrats taking the majority over Republicans. People shifted on basis of whether they thought governemnt should take active or passive role in recovery. Democrats took more liberal, active stand and Republicans took conservative, passive stand.

f.many people have been waiting for this to change -- some people argue that Reagan Revolution began the sixth party system, after decades of Democratic rule, but Clinton's election kind of screwed that up. However, if a Republican takes Pres in 1996, and they keep the Congress we may see the beginnings of Sixth party system.

NOTE: the Republican party of 1860 is not the same as the Republican party of 1995. Nor is the Democratic party of 1860 the same as the Democratic party of 1995.

which means that Repub claims wrt “party of Lincoln” are laughable-- Repubs of 1860s advocated fed gov’t taking active role in promoting rights of disadvantaged minorities -- far cry of position of Repubs today

name is same, but party philosophy completely different

4.So, then, from this it should be clear that parties are just groups of people who have a particular perspective on politics. Parties change as people and issues change -- and realignments occur (or have occurred) when these changes have been really big.

Scholars debate whether it is the party-in-the-electorate that is actually responsible for the realignment or whether it is party in government. For instance, with regard to the Third Party System: did voters change the party by focussing on slavery and voting for people that were either for or against it; or did candidates and incumbents hook onto the issue of slavery and define the vote choices for the voters accordingly. It's not clear who controls the show, but certainly both are involved.

ROLES OF AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES

This leads us in, somewhat nicely, to a discussion of the roles that parties play in American politics. The three different types of parties (or different types of party members) do things -- what do they do?

1. Mobilizing Support and Gathering Power

Applies largley to Party as Organization

Parties mobilize support for elected officials or would-be officials

The organizations at all levels of society will often write letters or send telegrams to Congress or constituencies in support of a particular candidate's or official's agenda

Parties act kind of like cheer leaders, reving people up and putting them together in a common cause, or in COALITIONS

Coalitions are large groups that are composed of diverse groups for common cause

When parties create such coalitions, they eliminate the need to constantly form and reform coalitions for every campaign or issue

i.e., orgs don’t have to constantly reinvent the wheel

Thus, parties provide some continuity in political support

2. A Force for Stability

This is largely related to Party in the Electorate

The continuity created by long term coalitions creates stability

As issues and politicians change, parties largely remain the same

Parties anchor the electorate, trying to bring extremes toward the center

The primary desire of parties to win is the force that tries to moderate public opinion and bring people together to create majorities necessary for victory

3. Unity, Linkage, Accountability

This is related mostly to Party in Government and Party in Electorate

Parties provide the glue necessary to keep disparate groups of an often fragmented country together

The Founders designed a system that divides and subdivides power that serves the purpose of preserving individual liberties but also makes it difficult to coordinate and produce action

We see this gridlock often in Washington

Parties help alleviate this problem a bit

(a) Parties link all institutions of power together

Even though there is rivalry between the executive and legislature, the partisan affiliation of the leaders of the branches provides a basis for cooperation

One of the pluses of avoiding divided government

This can be especially apparent with divided government, though

Any president and his fellow members of Congress usually collaberate on policies and programs

This "glue" also operates within institutions that tend to be fragmented, like in the House or Senate

Also, in the federal system (the different levels of government: local, state and national), party organizations at these levels help to cement relationships between the levels

** Thus, we see party as a means of negotiation among branches of government and levels of government

(b) Party as a linker also operates between voters and candidates and/or office holders

I talked about party identification: associations that voters feel with one of the parties bring voters together and draw the connection between voters and their representatives more clearly

Parties also often put together groups that would not normally agree and work together

E.g.: Democratic New Deal coalition brought together many blacks and white Southerners, groups that have not been historically close

4. The Electioneering Function

Related to all three, but mostly to Party as Organization

(a) parties gather talented, and sometimes not so talented, people into politics and government

parties recruit candidates for office

(b) parties create competition that is very important for democracy

each party puts of candidates up and they usually compete pretty heavily for office

this competition usually gets people out to vote and

gives them a choice

5. Party as a Voting and Issue Cue

Related mostly to Party in Electorate

A voter's party identification acts as an invaluable filter for information

we understand political news largely through what party we identify with

thus, when we vote, our party association provides a cue for us, particularly if we don't have a lot of other information or are not very interested

this is true, though, even for the most informed and educated people

we'll talk more about this when we get to the voting behavior and political socialization section of the course

6. Policy Formulation and Promotion

Party as Organization and Party in Government

Parties help create policy platforms - the party platforms we heard introduced at the party conventions

the party platform is the most obvious instrument through which the parties illustrate their public policy goals

7. Thus, we can see the importance of the party in the American political system, particularly by bringing together a diversity of people and interests so that our government can function

skip to Is the Party Over, p. 12, if running out of time

ONE-PARTYISM AND THIRD-PARTYISM

1. I've been talking about two political parties so far. But there's nothing that specifically dictates that we have two parties - there are democracies that have primarily one party and there are democracies that have many parties. Discussion of why we have two parties and the incidences of one and third partyism are important.

One Partyism

2. There are examples in the United States of one-partyism -- times during which there was essentially only one party : the best example is the Democratic party in the Deep South [and the Republican party in some of the New England states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.]

For one party to be dominant in the U.S., this means essentially that there is not competition from the other party -- in the South, from the Civil War to the 1970s, the Republican party didn't exist for all practical purposes -- and the reason was that nobody voted for Republicans so Republicans didn't run candidates.

This was, and still is to some extent, because to most Southerners, the Republican party still symbolized Abraham Lincoln and their defeat in the Civil War. So, Southerners boycotted Republican candidates and voted Democrat, even though the parties had changed.

Importantly, though, Southern Democrats were different than other Democrats -- they actually were more like the Civil War Democrats, at least with regard to their positions on race. Because of this, Southerners voted for them.

In contrast, Republicans outside of the South (national Republican party) were more like Southern Democrats, at least in terms of their views on race -- they were more conservative. So Southerners voted for Republican presidents but Democrats for everything else.

3. But the pattern of one partyism has dramatically decreased in the last 25 years or so

two-party competition has spread dramatically and one party states have decreased

there are no purely Republican states anymore

Democratic dominance has also decreased to perhaps a handful of states like Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Maryland

even in these states Republicans have been elected to various offices in recent years

4. importantly, this spread of two party competition has not been due to a strengthening of the parties but rather a weakening in terms of the party loyality of voters -- that Southerners are voting Republican more often now is a consequence of them feeling less loyal and attached to the Democratic party (this type of process is what eventually has led to realignments!)

Minor Parties

1. Third-partyism has proved to be more durable in the United States than one-partyism, even though is has been sporadic and intermittent

2. We often think that third parties have been and are extremely important to American politics

But, according to many political scientists, they aren't that big of a deal

3. Not a single minor party has ever come close to winning the presidency

AND only eight minor parties have won so much as a single state's electoral college votes

AND, as of the 1992 general election, only five third parties have gained more than 10% of the popular vote for president

Populists in 1892, Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in 1912, Progressives in 1924, Wallace's racially based American Independent party in 1968, and Perot's Independent party in 1992.

4. Third parties find their origins in a number of different political situations

(a) sectionalism: South's states' rights Dixiecrats who broke from Democratic party in 1948