Democracy Under Pressure

1
Democracy Under Pressure

• Chapter 9
• Political Parties

2
Political Parties

• When Senator John Kerry accepted the 2004
  Democratic party nomination for president, he
  pledged to fight terrorism and "restore trust and
  credibility to the White House."
• Many voters felt they really did not know Kerry,
  despite his well-publicized Vietnam war record
  and his antiwar activism afterwards. Moreover,
  he was challenging the incumbent.
• Kerry was described as "Lincolnesque", but had
  difficulty connecting with voters on a personal
  level.
  
• Despite a passionate speech, Kerry received very
  little of the "convention bounce."

3
Political Parties

• The Republicans chose New York City for their
  convention site, in order to emphasize Bush's
  leadership after the 9/11 attacks. Bush
  repeatedly invoked 9/11 and the dangers of
  terrorism to America.
• Despite the advantages of being the incumbent,
  Bush had reason to be concerned-most Americans
  considered themselves Democrats rather than
  Republicans. The gap between the two parties had
  narrowed.

4
Democracy Under Pressure

• What Is a Party?

5
What Is a Party?

• What is a party? There are many ways to describe
  a party, according to Frank Sorauf.
  
• Voters, a majority of whom consider themselves
  Democrats or Republicans.
  
• Party leaders, outside of government, who handle
  the party apparatus and can use it as a power
  base.
  
• Party activists, who perform the day-to-day,
  grass-roots work.

6
What Is a Party?

• Party leaders in government who include the
  president, leaders in Congress, and state and
  local leaders.
  
• A major party is a broad-based coalition that
  seeks to gain control of government by winning
  elections.
  
• Political parties are less powerful today because
  PACs, campaign managers, and interest groups have
  taken over many duties parties used to perform
  for candidates. Political parties in a democracy
  are different from those in totalitarian systems.

7
What Is a Party?

• In democracies, parties help manage the peaceful
  transfer of power in government.
  
• a. In totalitarian systems, power is not
  relinquished without force.
  
• b. Parties in the United States serve other
  functions for the political system
  
• i. They manage the succession of power.
• ii. They offer competing candidates for office,
  and policy alternatives.
  
• iii. They operate the machinery for nominations,
  campaigns, and elections.

8
What Is a Party?

• They help mobilize demands and support (inputs)
  for the system and participate in developing
  policy (outputs).
  
• The party in power defends the status quo, and
  opposing parties describe a need for change.
  
• Parties channel public support or opposition.
• They hold officials accountable to voters.
• They recruit candidates.
• Parties hold officials accountable to the voters.

9
What Is a Party?

• Parties are different from interest groups.
  Parties run candidates for office, interest
  groups do not.
  
• Interest groups are oriented toward narrow issue
  concerns.
  
• Parties try to form winning coalitions by
  creating combinations powerful enough to govern.
  
• Winning parties reconcile conflicting groups to
  get broad enough support to win elections.
  
• Their victorious presidential candidate appoints
  cabinet, staff, and other department heads to run
  the executive branch.
  
• He appeals to legislative branch members of his
  party for party loyalty to get his program
  through.
  
• This linkage in the governmental process helps to
  organize and run government down to the state and
  local levels.

10
Democracy Under Pressure

• The Development of American Political Parties

11
The Development of American Political Parties

• The Founding Fathers did not provide for parties,
  but did provide for the regular election of the
  president and Congress.
  
• James Madison's famous reminder in The Federalist
  No. 10 said that we should expect to have
  factions and parties in the "necessary and
  ordinary operation of the government."
• Washington warned against their divisiveness in
  his farewell address.
  
• Still, the party system took shape in the 1790s
  while Washington was still president.

12
Federalists and Democratic-Republicans

• Federalists, organized under Alexander Hamilton,
  were the first national political party in the
  United States. They stood for a strong central
  government, appealing to banking and commercial
  people.
• Democratic-Republicans, founded by Thomas
  Jefferson, were a mix of small farmers, debtors,
  Southern plantation owners, frontiersmen, and
  later, big city organizations like the Sons of
  Tammany in New York.

13
Federalists and Democratic-Republicans

• Jefferson's win in 1800 began a 28-year
  ascendancy of his party.
  
• Federalists didn't try to win the presidency
  after 1816. The Era of Good Feeling with little
  partisan activity followed until 1828.

14
Democrats and Whigs

• The election of Andrew Jackson in 1828 began a
  new era of two-party rivalry, which was mainly
  due to the Democrat-Republicans splitting into
  factions.
• Democrats became the party of the aspirations of
  the common man.
  
• The Whigs, led by Henry Clay, William Henry
  Harrison, and Daniel Webster, were a coalition of
  bankers, merchants, and southern planters who
  bonded through their distaste for Jacksonian
  democracy.

15
Democrats and Whigs

• Clinton Rossiter said "Out of the conflict of
  Democrats and Whigs emerged the American
  political system. . . . "
  
• Two major parties and a sprinkling of third
  parties.
  
• National nominating conventions.
• State and local bosses.
• Patronage and popular campaigning.
• Presidency-centered politics.
• Slavery caused the Democratic party to split into
  northern and southern wings.

16
Democrats and Republicans

• The new Republican Party grew out of antislavery
  society in February of 1854. It was a new party,
  not just a new version of the Whigs.
  
• a. It opposed the extension of slavery into the
  territories.
  
• b. Their first candidate, John C. Fremont, was
  unsuccessful in 1856.
  
• c. In 1860 it nominated Lincoln, who won against
  a slavery-divided Democratic Party with 39.8
  percent of the popular vote. Lincoln preserved
  the union and consolidated the party.

17
Democrats and Republicans

• d. For the next 25 years, the GOP, as it came to
  be known, consolidated its hold on the White
  House and Congress.
  
• i. The Democrats remained the party of the South,
  slavery, and defeat.
  
• ii. By 1876 Democrats were able to mount
  competitive races.
  
• iii. In 1884 and 1892, Democrat Grover Cleveland
  was elected.

18
Democrats and Republicans

• After the Civil War, this nation of immigrants
  faced industrialization. Railroad and steel
  magnates amassed huge wealth and farmers felt
  left out.
• Agrarian discontent led to the creation of the
  Grangers, the Greenbackers, and the Populist
  (People's) Party. Their strength was mostly in
  the West.

19
Democrats and Republicans

• By 1896, the Democrats had taken on the populist
  message with a "free silver" platform and William
  Jennings Bryan as their candidate. He lost to
  Republican William McKinley.
• GOP winner William McKinley defended the gold
  standard and conservative fiscal policies as he
  led a coalition of Eastern business interests,
  urban workers, Midwest farmers, and New
  Englanders.

20
Democrats and Republicans

• Teddy Roosevelt held the new coalition together
  from 1901 to 1909, but it fractured in 1912.
  
• The Conservative wing renominated Taft.
• The Progressive (or Bull Moose) Party nominated
  Teddy Roosevelt, giving the election over to
  Democrat Woodrow Wilson.
  
• Wilson's two terms were a short Democratic era.
• The Harding and Coolidge presidencies in the
  1920s created a "Big Business era" and numerous
  scandals.

21
Democrats and Republicans

• The stock market crash and the depression caused
  a major shift in allegiances, much like the Civil
  War had.
  
• The result of these events was the election of
  FDR in 1932 and 20 years of uninterrupted
  Democratic rule.
  
• In 1952, the GOP, with Eisenhower as its
  standard-bearer, recaptured the White House. He
  was followed by Democrats JFK and LBJ. LBJ
  garnered 61 percent of the vote in 1964.

22
Democrats and Republicans

• In 1964 Barry Goldwater moved the GOP to the
  right and lost in a landslide.
  
• Showing GOP resilience and reinforcing the
  two-party system, Republicans regrouped under
  Nixon and won in 1968. The war in Vietnam helped
  to defeat LBJ.
• Urban riots also hurt LBJ and helped to convince
  him not to run.
  
• Nixon's 1972 landslide was eclipsed by the
  resignation of his vice president, the Watergate
  scandals, and his own resignation, helping Jimmy
  Carter win in 1976.

23
Democrats and Republicans

• Even Watergate could not endanger the system. In
  1980 and 1984, the GOP won by landslides and they
  made inroads in Congress, including a short-lived
  Senate majority.

24
Democrats and Republicans

• The ability of the parties to survive adversity
  rests on the fact that many districts are
  dominated by one party. Even when defeated, it
  still has pockets of power across the nation.
• Reagan carried 49 states in 1984, but the
  Democrats retained 34 state governorships and
  control of the House of Representatives.
  
• Democrats recaptured the Senate in 1986, with
  Bush facing a Congress controlled by Democrats.
  
• In 1992, both the presidency and Congress were
  controlled by the Democrats, but in 1994, the
  Republicans captured control of Congress.

25
Democracy Under Pressure

• The Two-Party System

26
The Two-Party System

• The two-party system has prevailed throughout
  most of our history.
  
• Winning the nomination of one of the two major
  parties is half the battle for many candidates.
  
• In some one-party states, winning in the
  primaries means virtually automatic election
  later.
  
• From 1828 to the present, the two major parties
  have consistently gotten 90 percent or more of
  the vote.
  
• George Wallace and his American Independent Party
  received 13.5 percent of the popular vote in 1968.

27
The Two-Party System

• Independent Eugene McCarthy got less than 1
  percent of the vote in 1976. John Anderson
  defected from the GOP, campaigned hard, and got
  only 6.6 percent of the popular votes and no
  electoral votes in 1980.
• In 1992, independent Ross Perot made the
  strongest showing of any candidate who was not a
  major-party nominee since Teddy Roosevelt ran in
  1912.
• In 1992 he got 19 million votes (19 percent) of
  the popular vote. In 1996 his support had eroded
  substantially.
  
• In 2000, two minor parties received attention
  conservative Pat Buchanan was nominated by Ross
  Perot's Reform Party and consumer activist Ralph
  Nader was nominated by the Green Party.

28
The Roots of Dualism

• America has always been a two-party nation.
• Tradition and history.
• Dualism is as old as the nation. It is accepted,
  in part, because it has always been there.
  
• The electoral system.
• The system of elections favors two parties.
• In a single-member-per-district Congress, the
  winner takes all.

29
The Roots of Dualism

• A presidential candidate with the most popular
  votes in a state usually gets all of the state's
  electors.
  
• Minor parties lack the strong geographic base
  needed to win and instead disappear.
  
• State election laws often make it difficult for
  minor parties to get on the ballot.
  
• Patterns of belief.
• Ideological differences in American voters are
  not so intense that we have as many ideological
  parties as exist in Western Europe.

30
Democrat and Republicans Is There a Difference?

• Neither party has the support of a majority of
  U.S. voters, so they must garner support from
  outside their party.
  
• To win a presidential election, candidates
  usually appeal to the great mass of voters in the
  ideological center.

31
Democrat and Republicans Is There a Difference?

• Where the parties diverge on issues
• GOP leaders identify with business, free
  enterprise, and economic conservatism.
  
• Democrats are pro-labor and support government
  regulation of the economy.
  
• According to a survey of leaders in 2004, 77
  percent of Democratic delegates agreed that the
  government enacting anti-terrorism laws
  excessively restrict civil liberties. Only 15
  percent of Republicans agreed with that statement.

32
Democrat and Republicans Is There a Difference?

• Eighty-six percent of Democratic delegates said
  that the U.S. should have stayed out of Iraq,
  compared to only three percent of Republican
  delegates.
• Forty-nine percent of Republican delegates agreed
  that gay couples should not have legal
  recognition, compared to five percent of
  Democrats.

33
The Decline of Party Loyalty and Party Influence

• Fading party loyalties among voters have become
  evident in recent years.
  
• Ladd and Hadley contend the drop-off has been
  dramatic over the last decade to the point that
  the public is indifferent to it.
  
• Martin Wattenberg found a large part of the
  public views parties with indifference.
  

34
The Decline of Party Loyalty and Party Influence

• Austin Ranney has observed that an almost
  "no-party" system has developed in presidential
  politics.
  
• GOP candidate Ronald Reagan won 58 percent of the
  vote, while less than one-third of the voters
  identified themselves as Republicans.
  
• Non-party candidate Ross Perot got nearly one of
  five votes cast in 1992.

35
The Decline of Party Loyalty and Party Influence

• Various reasons have been suggested for the
  decline in party ties
  
• A more educated electorate with less need for
  guidance from a party.
  
• Increased split-ticket voting.
• Increasing importance of television and news
  media, and the breakup of old alignments within
  major parties.
  
• Professionals now provide services once provided
  by the parties. Functions of the party have been
  taken over by PACs, campaign managers, and
  interest groups.
• Decline in urban political machines. Candidates
  no longer rely on parties to run campaigns.

36
The Decline of Party Loyalty and Party Influence

• Decline does not mean political parties are
  becoming extinct.

37
The Democrats

• One way to look at the differences between the
  two major parties is to examine their images.
  
• The "typical" Democrat lives in a big city in the
  North, is a member of a minority or ethnic group,
  drinks beer, belongs to a union, works on an
  assembly line, goes bowling, and is low-income.
• This contrasts with the "typical" Republican a
  well-paid, white Protestant who lives in the
  suburbs in a split-level house, commutes to the
  city, belongs to a country club, and drinks
  martinis.

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39
The Democrats

• The preceding caricatures are overdrawn.
• The Democratic base has changed since the New
  Deal.
  
• They've lost ground with some of their old
  constituencies unionists and big-city and
  Southern whites.
  
• They've made up for those losses with gains among
  the upper-middle class.
  
• GOP has lost ground among young people of
  relative privilege (i.e., yuppies).

40
The Democrats

• Studies seem to mirror reality, to an extent.
• Democrats tend to gain support from labor,
  African Americans, Jews, ethnic minorities, young
  people, those with low incomes, and city
  dwellers.
• GOP more likely to be white, suburban,
  Protestant, rural, older, wealthier,
  college-educated, and professionals or business
  executives.

41
The Democrats

• Many of these patterns are changing.
• In the 1992 election, Catholics, a Democratic
  mainstay, moved away from the party. Forty-two
  percent of white Catholics under 30 identified
  themselves as Republicans.
• Hispanics voted Republican in that year.

42
The Democrats

• Socioeconomic factors may better correlate with
  voter preferences.
  
• In a survey, half of people with low incomes
  identified with the Democrats but only 26 percent
  of the low-income group identified with the GOP.
  
• The gender gap was also evident in 1996, with 54
  percent of women and 44 percent of men voting
  Democratic.
  
• Democrats see themselves as the "inclusive"
  party, according to political scientist Jo
  Freeman, while the GOP sees itself as
  representing the core of American society and as
  a carrier of its fundamental values.

43
The Democrats

• Since 1932, Democrats are the party of Franklin
  Roosevelt and the New Deal.
  
• The Fair Deal, New Frontier, and Great Society,
  which sought to use federal funds and energy to
  solve social problems, were patterned after the
  New Deal.
• Clinton called himself a New Democrat in 1992,
  but philosophically he supported the party's
  traditional views.
  
• In 2000, Democrat Al Gore proposed to pay for
  prescription drugs.

44
The Democrats

• FDR's grand coalition still has two distinct
  halves Southern moderates and Northern urban
  liberals.
  
• The old South is no longer a solid Democratic
  bloc.
  
• They went solidly for Nixon in 1972.
• By 1980, Jimmy Carter only carried his home
  state, Georgia. In 1984 Mondale did not carry any
  southern states, and in 1988 Dukakis also failed
  to carry any.
• Clinton, a southerner, carried only four southern
  states in 1992.

45
The Democrats

• Democrats are labeled as the party of social
  innovation. Democrats tend to be more raucous,
  while Republicans are more sedate.
  
• However, in 2004, Democrats showed unusual
  harmony in choosing John Kerry.
  
• Today, the conventions tend to be carefully
  scripted and manicured for television.

46
The Republicans

• In describing the party, Theodore White sees the
  old Protestant-Puritan ethic of small towns and
  the belief that the individual (man or
  corporation) can produce the common good more
  swiftly and better than big government.
• In recent decades, people who identify themselves
  as Democrats have outnumbered people who say they
  are Republicans.
  
• Despite five presidential election wins from 1968
  to 1998, the GOP has tried to widen its appeal.

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The Republicans

• Democrats are partially accurate when they call
  the GOP "the party of Big Business." Democrats
  have traditionally been known as the party of
  organized labor.
• The GOP got 221 million in campaign money from
  businesses in 2000.
  
• By July 2004, the GOP received 225 million from
  businesses.
  
• GOP administration regulators have been gentle
  with the businesses they were regulating.

49
The Republicans

• Like the Democrats, the GOP has a split
  personality.
  
• Since 1912 there have been moderate and
  conservative wings.
  
• In the convention of 1952, the conservative Taft
  wing battled the Eisenhower moderates for the
  nomination.
  
• Other examples include the 1964 Goldwater versus
  Rockefeller fight the 1968 battle with Reagan on
  the right, Nixon in the center, and Rockefeller
  and George Romney on the left and, the
  Reagan-Ford battle in 1976.

50
The Republicans

• The split surfaced again in 1999 during the vote
  on the impeachment of Bill Clinton.
  
• In the 1980s and 1990s, the Christian Coalition
  and conservative religious groups supported Bush
  and later Dole and the GOP ticket, fearing social
  breakdown and moral decay from the Democratic
  agenda.

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52
Minor Parties and Independent Candidates

• They have been active throughout our history.
  Examples the Anti-Masons of the 1830s the
  Greenbackers of the 1880s the Populists of the
  1890s and the Progressives of the 1920s.
• In 1986, American Independents under Governor
  George Wallace of Alabama scared the major
  parties, fearing he'd have enough electoral votes
  to keep a major candidate from winning in the
  electoral college. He only got 46 electors and
  13.5 percent of the popular vote.

53
Minor Parties and Independent Candidates

• In 1992 Ross Perot spent 63.4 million of his own
  funds and got 19 percent of the vote. In 1996 he
  took 29 million in federal matching funds and
  still lost.
• Other candidates are less funded. In 1980,
  independent candidate John Anderson did not carry
  a single state, but did better than most with 6.6
  percent of the popular vote.

54
Minor Parties and Independent Candidates

• V. O. Key, Jr., suggests that minor parties fall
  into two broad categories
  
• Those formed to propagate a particular doctrine,
  like the Prohibitionists and Socialists.
  
• Transient third-party movements, including
  economic protest parties like the Populists, the
  Greenbackers, and the Progressives of 1924 and
  secessionists like the Progressives of 1912 and
  the Dixiecrats of 1948.
• Sometimes third parties have strong nativist
  tendencies. The Know-Nothings and Wallace's
  (1968) American Independent party are examples.

55
Minor Parties and Independent Candidates

• There also are special state third parties, like
  the Liberals and Conservatives in New York.
  
• It is noted that major parties tend to absorb the
  third parties. And no minor party has risen to
  become a major party nor a major dropped to a
  minor.

56
Democracy Under Pressure

• Party Structure

57
Party Structure

• American political parties are more loosely
  organized (decentralized).
  
• Rather than a system with power flowing down, it
  is a series of layers of a party, with each layer
  concerned first about elections in its area.

58
National Political Parties

• National party organization is the trophy
  bestowed on the winner of the nomination and
  election for president.
  
• Lose the election, and you must relinquish the
  party apparatus to someone else.
  
• The national convention, which nominates the
  party's candidates for president and vice
  president, writes the platform, settles disputes,
  writes party rules, and elects the national
  committee.

59
National Political Parties

• The national chairperson, formally elected by the
  national committee, is in practice picked by the
  winning presidential nominee.
  
• The national committee is the governing body of
  the party. Members are chosen from each state.
  
• In the past, the committees were little more than
  the permanent offices of the party that house the
  national chairperson and the staff.
  
• Recently, they have been involved between
  presidential elections in public relations,
  patronage, research, and fund-raising.

60
National Political Parties

• Presidential nominees largely ignore the national
  committee, preferring to build a personal
  organization to run the campaign.
  
• Further decentralizing the parties is the
  practice of having congressional and senatorial
  campaign committees in Congress, chosen by the
  party members in Congress, and not tied to the
  national committee. These committees help members
  with their reelection efforts with money,
  speakers, campaign advice, and assistance.

61
State and Local Parties

• Laws governing parties vary widely from state to
  state.
  
• State parties are under the control of the
  governors, with mayors of large cities carrying
  clout in many northern industrial cities.
  
• When the other party has the governorship, the
  party chairperson has more personal influence
  but in some states the party is run by a single
  party boss-either an elected government official
  or party officer.

62
State and Local Parties

• David Mayhew classified many states as having
  "traditional party organizations" that are
  independent and highly organized, seeking to
  nominate candidates to a wide range of offices.
  They offer rewards to loyal followers.
• There are great variations in party politics from
  state to state. The Democrats in Alabama are very
  different from the ones in Michigan.
  
• Some state parties have big city versus the rest
  of the state cleavages, as in Cook County
  (Chicago) and downstate Illinois.

63
State and Local Parties

• The possibility of riding into office on a
  winning presidential candidate's coattails can
  tie state parties to national ones.
  
• The state committees are below the national
  committee on the party flow charts.
  
• Below the state committees is the county level
  county chairs, district leaders of various sorts,
  precinct and ward captains, and party workers.

64
State and Local Parties

• Patronage jobs for the party workers help hold
  the party organization together and link it with
  government.
  
• Although big-city machines still exist, the
  political "boss" of the 19th and 20th centuries
  really no longer exists.

65
State and Local Parties

• The urban machines drew power from vast waves of
  immigrants.
  
• The machines offered help-from food baskets to
  city jobs-in return for votes.
  
• Since the 1930s, federal social programs undercut
  the city machines.
  
• The establishment of the direct primary and party
  reforms also contributed to the destruction of
  boss systems like Carmine De Sapio's Tammany Hall
  and the last of the city bosses, Richard J. Daley
  of Chicago.

66
State and Local Parties

• Still, people participate at the grass-roots
  level for a number of reasons that aren't merely
  economic
  
• For the sheer excitement of being involved in a
  presidential campaign.
  
• Being a precinct captain in some places is
  prestigious.
  
• Being a party worker might help you go to the
  quadrennial national party convention.

67
State and Local Parties

• Two kinds of activists are the most common at
  various levels of the party and at the national
  conventions.
  
• Activists are volunteers who are committed to a
  particular issue or candidate.
  
• Activists supporting particular candidates for
  high office.
  
• Only about 10 percent of the population could be
  called politically involved.
  
• In 2000, only 18.3 million made campaign
  contributions, 10.2 million attended political
  events, and 6.1 million did political work.

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69
Democracy Under Pressure

• The National Convention

70
The National Convention

• The influence of television on American politics
  in 2004 is such that the conventions were
  carefully controlled, made-for-television,
  designed by producers to appeal to prime time
  audiences.
• Gone are the days of gavel-to-gavel coverage when
  the conventions provided real drama.
  
• In 2004, broadcast networks limited the
  Democratic convention to one hour, and only three
  of the four nights.

71
The National Convention

• Even the parties carefully script the convention
  down to the minute and the tone of the speeches.
  
• In most conventions, the delegates merely ratify
  what is a foregone conclusion for weeks and
  months. One wonders whether delegates have any
  meaningful power, or are they robots legally
  bound to vote for the winner of their state's
  primary?
• Although the acceptance of the nominee draws
  millions of viewers, conventions are denounced as
  a carnival and a bore.

72
The National Convention

• Nelson Polsby has observed that national
  conventions survive mainly as spectacle and as
  entertainment, although they may conduct business
  of great importance to the party's future.
• Conventions, even in 2000, can still give the
  candidate a short-lived public opinion bounce in
  their favor.

73
Nominating a Presidential Candidate

• Today's national conventions are less important
  than in the past, and normally take place over
  four days in July or August.
  
• If there is competition for the nomination,
  rumors fly of deals. This has not been the case
  in recent conventions. Instead, large
  corporations set up hospitality suites and throw
  lavish parties that double as fund-raisers for
  candidates.

74
Nominating a Presidential Candidate

• Day One involves a report by the credentials
  committee on the seating of delegates, followed
  by keynoters who stir the delegates to
  commitment, setting the tone of the convention.
• Day Two includes debating and voting on the
  platform.

75
Nominating a Presidential Candidate

• Day Three includes nominating speeches,
  "spontaneous" demonstrations for the candidates,
  voting by a roll call of states, and an
  acceptance speech by the vice presidential
  candidate.
• Day Four finds the presidential candidate
  accepting the nomination. The presidential and
  vice presidential candidates then make their
  climactic appearance with their families before
  cheering delegates.

76
The Delegates

• Who are they? A cross section of the party who
  can afford to go to the convention and stay at
  hotels during the convention.
  
• Usually include governors, senators,
  representatives, mayors, state legislators, state
  party officials, and activists.
  
• Delegates are chosen by a variety of methods.
  Most states select delegations in presidential
  primaries. In other states, delegates are chosen
  at state conventions, party caucuses, and state
  committees.

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The Delegates

• Since 1972, Democratic party reforms have ensured
  the participation of large numbers of women,
  blacks, youth, and Spanish-speakers.
  
• Delegates chosen by state and party organizations
  are pledged by party leaders to vote for a
  particular candidate.
  
• In 1980, Democratic selection rules gave
  officeholders and party officials more say in the
  nomination. In 2000 13 percent of Democratic
  delegates were elected public officeholders.

79
The Delegates

• Delegates may hold stronger views than rank and
  file members. At the 2004 Democratic convention,
  75 percent of delegates thought abortion should
  be generally available, compared to 49 percent of
  Democratic voters. Forty-four percent favored gay
  marriage, compared to 36 percent of Democratic
  voters. Ninety-three percent of the delegates
  thought the war in Iraq was not worth the costs,
  compared to 85 percent of Democratic voters.

80
From Smoke-filled Rooms to the Television Age

• The national convention system evolved slowly.
• Prior to 1824, nominations for president were
  made by party caucus in Congress.
  
• In that year, Andrew Jackson, who knew he would
  not be chosen by congressional caucus, led his
  supporters to bypass the caucus. He created a
  situation in which there was no majority in the
  electoral college and John Quincy Adams was
  chosen by the House.
• In the Election of 1832, "King Caucus" was
  dethroned, giving way to the first national
  conventions.

81
From Smoke-filled Rooms to the Television Age

• James K. Polk was elected on the eighth ballot as
  a dark horse candidate.
  
• Backroom deals were made by political bosses
  operating secretly in smoke-filled rooms, as was
  the case of the GOP's nomination of Warren G.
  Harding in 1920.
• In 1924 the Democratic convention battled to a
  103rd ballot, settling on dark horse John W.
  Davis.
  
• FDR was nominated on the fourth ballot in 1932.
• The GOP had its greatest split since 1912 when
  Eisenhower took on Taft in 1952.

82
From Smoke-filled Rooms to the Television Age

• Since 1960, the national conventions no longer
  select but ratify. The power of the party bosses
  has ebbed.
  
• As a result of intense media coverage, the polls
  have convinced the public who is likely to be the
  nominee long before the convention.
  
• Media coverage of the "race" uses all of the
  metaphors of a derby favorites, dark horses,
  gaining ground, etc.

83
From Smoke-filled Rooms to the Television Age

• Though national conventions nominate the
  presidential candidates, not many voters
  participate in selecting the delegates. In 2004,
  only about 12.7 million (8 percent) of Americans
  of voting age participated in the primaries.

84
(No Transcript)
85
The Future of the Convention System

• One proposal to replace the national convention
  system has been to have a national presidential
  primary. Voters could then directly select the
  party nominees for president.
• Critics argue that the candidate who had the most
  intense support could win the nomination, but
  have a poor chance of a November victory.
  
• Runoffs might be needed and the top vote-getter
  in the first primary would lose in the second.
  
• National primaries would hurt the lesser-known
  candidate.
  
• A national primary would further weaken the role
  of political parties.

86
The Future of the Convention System

• Nelson W. Polsby suggested that parties should
  continue selecting presidential nominees. Parties
  are crucial for the "proper general functioning
  of the political system."
• The convention system, which has been around
  since 1832, is unlikely to disappear.
  
• The conventions still serve a purpose in that
  they choose the nominees for president and vice
  president. They also provide a forum for voters
  to see the candidates in action and unify the
  party and generate voter interest in the fall
  elections.

87
Democracy Under Pressure

• Political Parties and Democratic Government

88
Political Parties and Democratic Government

• Americans have been ambivalent toward politics
  and politicians.
  
• Eisenhower in 1952 was an outsider, Ronald Reagan
  ran for California governor as an outsider in
  1966.
  
• To many voters, politicians are merely
  unprincipled opportunists.
  
• Watergate did not seem to surprise voters, who
  felt that "they all do it.
  
• Political parties are vital to functioning of the
  American democracy, yet do not enjoy prestige.

89
Political Parties and Democratic Government

• The truth about politics and practitioners lies
  somewhere between Aristotle's view that "the good
  of man" is the object of politics and Simon
  Cameron's view that politicians are "bought" and
  "will stay bought."
• Americans might have a more generous view of the
  craft of politics if it were more widely
  understood that parties and democracy are
  mutually dependent because of the functions they
  perform.
• The rest of the world has great concern about how
  the parties select a presidential nominee who may
  hold the nuclear button.

90
Political Parties and Democratic Government

• The brokerage role of mediating among groups and
  resolving social conflict is of tremendous import
  to a democracy under pressure.
  
• Both parties try to develop broad-based appeals.
• The party not in power offers alternatives in
  Congress and rallies its followers to bring about
  change.
  
• The parties keep conflict manageable.

91
A Choice, Not an Echo?

• There is a common lament that the two parties are
  the same but in reality there are significant
  differences.
  
• Gerald Pomper studied the differences in the
  party platforms to determine the differences in
  views, finding
  
• Platforms are reasonably meaningful indications
  of the party's intentions and identify the party
  with certain policies.
  
• He also found that the parties kept more than
  two-thirds of their promises over a ten-year
  period (1968-1978).

92
A Choice, Not an Echo?

• American parties are not sharply ideological, but
  then neither are the voters.
  
• Max Lerner noted of party difference "While it
  is more than the difference between Tweedledum
  and Tweedledee, it is not such as to split
  society itself or invite civil conflict. . . ."

93
Are Parties Accountable to the Voters?

• American elections elect people, not parties, but
  hold both accountable.
  
• American parties are criticized for not being
  "responsible" to the voters because
  
• They cannot be held to their platform promises.
• They lack the internal discipline to whip their
  programs through Congress.
  
• Gerald Pomper has noted that political parties do
  carry out many platform pledges.

94
Are Parties Accountable to the Voters?

• In parliamentary systems like Great Britain's,
  political parties are more closely linked to the
  electorate than in the United States because the
  parties run both legislative and executive
  branches when elected and have a chance to carry
  out their campaign programs.

95
Are Parties Accountable to the Voters?

• Political scientists have debated the value of
  responsible parties
  
• On the down side, party cohesion strong enough to
  pass programs in Congress could only be achieved
  by reducing the role and independence of
  individual legislators.
• Advocates of responsible parties suggest several
  ways to get them, short of adopting the British
  system
  
• Attempt to achieve greater discipline within the
  parties by rewarding cooperative members with
  campaign funds.
  
• Elect committee chairs in Congress based on party
  loyalty, not just seniority.

96
Are Parties Accountable to the Voters?

• Party responsibility already exists to a degree,
  as presidents who seek election have learned.
  
• In the 1964 election, LBJ presented himself as a
  "dove" v. Goldwater's "hawk" on Vietnam, but
  could not run in 1968 because he felt the voters
  would punish him for switching sides.

97
Democracy Under Pressure

• A Look Ahead

98
A Look Ahead

• It is hard to predict the future of politics, as
  was found by those who predicted that no member
  of the GOP could be elected in 1968 after the
  debacle of 1964, and those who foresaw the doom
  of the GOP after Watergate.
• Clinton defied early odds to win the presidency
  in 1992.
  
• The GOP, which lost the White House to Clinton,
  won the Congress two years later.

99
A Look Ahead

• One fact is clear Political parties must respond
  to pressures for or against change or pay the
  price with defeat.
  
• In addition, minor parties will arise in times of
  stress. More non-party candidates, like Ross
  Perot, will seek the White House.
  
• Candidates will continue to rely on television,
  which can reach millions of voters.

100
A Look Ahead

• Political commercials, professional campaign
  managers, political polls, and skilled media
  techniques now play a major role in campaigns.
  
• Political parties play a vital role in
  translating the hopes of Americans into action.