GOVT 312: Political Parties and Campaigns

1
GOVT 312 Political Parties and Campaigns

• Lecture 2
• Americas Two-Party System

2
How to Count Parties

• Do they win votes? What percent?
• Do they win office? What percent?
• Do they coordinate with other parties?
• Are they internally fractured?

3
Why Two Parties in U.S?

• Structural Explanations
• Behavioral Explanations
• Cultural Explanations

4
Structural Explanations

• Duvergers Law holds that single-member districts
  with plurality elections tend to produce
  two-party systems. Why?
  
• Geographically concentrated minor parties can win
  elections, like the Quebecois Party in Canada, or
  the Scottish and Wales Parties in England.
  
• Other election laws favor two parties Electoral
  College, ballot access, and campaign finance

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Behavioral Explanations

• If voters know that minor parties have no chance,
  they will choose among the two parties
  candidates likely to win.
  
• Quality candidates join parties that are likely
  to offer them a chance at victory.

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Cultural Explanations

• U.S. politics takes on a Dualist nature. In
  its history, politics have traditionally pitted
  business and agrarian interests against one
  another
• American politics are centrist, leaving no room
  for minor parties.

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Benefits of Two Parties

• Legitimacy through majority approval
• Accountability and effective governance
• Centrist politics
• National unity?

8
U.S. Party Systems

• The first party system (1788-1828) Federalists
  vs. Democratic-Republican Party.
  
• The Federalists were in favor of strong national
  government to foster an business environment.
  
• D-R favored states rights and agrarian
  interests.
  
• In 1816, the Federalists died out, and we had an
  era of one-party government known as the Era of
  Good Feeling. D-R
  
• In 1828, Andrew Jackson mobilized outside the
  elite power structure in Washington and was
  elected president. Soon after, The modern
  Democratic Party was born out of this new
  movement.

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U.S. Party Systems

• The second party system 1828-1860
  Democratic-Republicans vs. Whigs
  
• Whigs were a party born out of the split of the
  D-R. Favored property owners, businesses, and
  anti-immigrants
  
• The Whigs were internally split on the issue of
  slavery. This split culminated in the election
  of Lincoln as the nominee of the new Republican
  Party.

10
U.S. Party Systems

• Third party system (1860-1898) Democrats vs.
  Republicans
  
• Democrats emerged from the Civil War as the
  dominant political party in the South, and would
  remain so until following the embracing of Civil
  Rights by the Democrats in the 1960s.
• During the third party system, there was close
  competition between the two political parties.
  In fact, during this period, two Republicans
  (Hayes and Harrison) won the Electoral College
  with less than the popular vote of the Democrat.

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U.S. Party Systems

• Fourth party system (1898-1932) Democrats vs.
  Republicans
  
• The fourth party system was born out of the
  Populist movement, a loose collection of third
  parties that challenged the two existing parties
  on issues of concern to farmers, the most
  important being Free Silver. The Democrats
  co-opted the Populists by running their
  presidential nominee, William Jennings Bryan, in
  1896. Bryan lost to McKinley, which ushered in
  an era of Republican dominance.

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U.S. Party Systems

• Fifth party system (1932-1960) Democrats vs.
  Republicans
  
• The fifth party system began with the election of
  FDR in 1932, and his New Deal plan to pull the
  country out of the Great Depression. It formed a
  Democratic coalition that could not last the
  racist South with poor and minorities.

13
U.S. Party Systems

• Sixth party system (1960-present) Democrats vs.
  Republicans
  
• The sixth party system began during the era of
  the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam, and
  Watergate. People began to distrust the
  political parties, and the number of people
  registering and identifying themselves as
  independents grew.
• Where we are now the reemergence of parties?

14
Lesson State Competition

• The overall competition of the political parties
  at the national level belies the lack of
  competition at the state level.
  
• Generally, with the decline of the Solid South
  there has been an overall increasing trend of
  competition at the state level. Still, there are
  uncompetitive states (Hershey, p.29)
• Little competition in congressional elections.

15
Lesson Minor Parties

• Political parties compete for the marketplace of
  ideas in the electorate. Since the two parties
  are near parity, and need to form a majority,
  third parties can have a impact on the policy
  platforms parties adopt, much greater than their
  size would otherwise indicate.