Political Parties in American Politics

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Political Parties in American Politics

• PSC 121
• Professor Daniel Holliman
• The Maxwell School of Citizenship

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Lecture Outline

• I. What do Parties Do?
• Defined
• Why are Parties important?
• II. Parties in History
• Critical Election theory
• Party systems interpretation of American History
• III. How Parties Contribute to Democratic
  Politics?
• IV.. How Parties Detract from Democratic Politics?

• V. Progressive Reform
• direct primary, civil service, official ballot,
  personal registration
• VI. Party Renewal

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Political Parties--Defined

• Groups of like-minded people who band together in
  an attempt to take control of government.

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Parties vs. Interests vs. Factions

• The Founders (Federalists/Madison) identified
  the central threat to liberty as factions.
• Differing interests are cited as the most
  durable source of faction.
• But isnt a party just an institutionalized
  faction?

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Anti-Party Sentiments

• To the founders of the young Republic,parties
  meant bigger, better organized, and fiercer
  factions, and they did not want that
• Government by the People

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The Two-Party System in America

• Historical Origins
• The Federalists and Jeffersonians were the first
  American parties.
• The Jeffersonian Party would evolve into the
  modern Democratic Party in the late 1820s.
• The modern Republican Party grew out of the
  antislavery movement in the 1850s.

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Parties in American History A Party Systems
Interpretation

• American political history can be viewed as a
  succession of electoral eras referred to as a
  party system.
• Within each era, elections are similar, the key
  points of similarity and dissimilarity being the
  party alignmentthe social and economic groups
  that consistently support each party

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Parties in American History A Party Systems
Interpretation

• The eras themselves are separated by one or more
  critical elections.
• critical elections are elections that marks the
  emergence of a new, lasting alignment of partisan
  support within the electorate.

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Party Systems Interpretation of Electoral History

• First (Jeffersonian) Party System1796-1824
• 7 Democratic-Republican presidential victories
• 1 Federalist Victory
• Second (Jacksonian) Party System 1828-1856
• 6 Democratic victories
• 2 Whig victories
• Third (Civil War and Reconstruction) Party
  System 1860-1892
• 7 Republican victories
• 2 Democratic victories
• Fourth (National Republican) Party System
  1896-1928
• 7 Republican victories
• 2 Democratic victories

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Party Systems Interpretation of Electoral History

• Fifth (New Deal) Party System 1932-1964
• 7 Democratic victories
• 2 Republican victories
• Sixth (Divided Government) Party System 1968-??
• 6 Republican victories
• 3 Democratic victories

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Electoral Alignments and Realignments

• An electoral realignment occurs when a new party
  supplants the ruling party.
• Caused by new issues or new voters

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What do Parties Do?

• Political Parties have been considered the
  central institutions of democratic governments at
  least since the enfranchisement of the working
  class
• Parties are strongly associated with the values
  of democracy and are accurately regarded as one
  of its working mechanisms.

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Are Political Parties Important?

• Many Americans are not sure..
• 45 Agree that it would be better if there were
  no party labels on the ballot
• 52 Agree that parties do more to confuse issues
  than provide a clear choice
• 30 Agree we probably dont need political
  parties in America anymore
• Source, 1999 Gallop Poll. Sampling error is /-
  3

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What Parties Do? They add to American democracy.
Parties

• Organize and operate the government
• Focus responsibility for government action
• Develop issues and educate the public
• Synthesize interests
• Recruit and develop governmental talent
• Simplify the electoral system

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Most importantly,

• Parties have at times dominated citizens
  conceptions of politics. Until the late 1960s
  Partisan identification had a good deal of
  influence on citizens behavior in the political
  world.

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An important study called The American Voter
found...

• during the 1940s, and much of the1950s almost all
  Americans identified closely with one or another
  of the two major parties. 90 considered
  themselves either Democrats or Republicans.Very
  few Americans considered themselves independents.
• Also discovered that partisan identification had
  a good deal of influence on citizens behavior in
  the political world.

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The American Voter...

• First, partisan identification (Party ID)
  affected whether or not people voted. People who
  strongly identified with a party were much more
  likely to go to the polls.
• Second, partisan ties affect the direction of
  peoples vote. In fact the authors found that the
  single most important factor influencing voting
  in the United States was Party ID.

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Party Identification

• Individuals identify with one of the two major
  parties.
• Identification with a particular party is based
  on the shared views and interests of the
  individual and the party.

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The American Voter...

• First, partisan identification (Party ID)
  affected whether or not people voted. People who
  strongly identified with a party were much more
  likely to go to the polls.
• Second, partisan ties affect the direction of
  peoples vote. In fact the authors found that the
  single most important factor influencing voting
  in the United States was Party ID.

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The American Voter...

• Third, Partisanship influenced citizens
  perceptions of issues, of candidates, and of
  events. (In terms of political psychology,
  partisanship often contains an element of
  cognitive dissonance and can often be seen as a
  perceptual screen).
• Thus, those who identify with the Democratic
  Party would tend to see Democratic Politicians in
  a positive light.

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Party Identification in the Electorate
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Political Parties are critical in 3 Areas V.O.
Key

• Partisanship-As-Organization
• Partisanship-In-Government
• Partisanship-In-the-Electorate

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Why have political parties?

• The ideal Political parties serve as the main
  instrument of popular sovereignty and majority
  rule by

• keeping elected officials responsive.
• Including a broad range of groups
• stimulating political interest.
• insuring accountability.

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Responsible Party Thesis

• Each party should present policy programs to
  voters consistent with its ideology.
• Party Programs should differ, presenting voters
  with a range of choices
• Parties must carry out their policy commitments
  while in office.
• Voters should hold parties accountable for
  promises not delivered on.

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Distinguishing between Parties

• Ideology
• Party Memberships
• Policy Differences

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Group Affiliations

• The parties represent coalitions of groups, which
  include
• race and ethnicity,
• Gender,
• Religion,
• class
• Ideology,
• Region
• Age

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What do the parties stand for?

• What is an ideology?
• What is a platform?
• What is the relationship between ideology and
  policy platforms?

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In Terms of Political Strategy, Parties and
Politicians usually Operationalize 6 basic
Tactics

• Strategy is the plan to achieve your most
  important political goals.
• Tactics are the things you do in the course of
  implementing your political strategy.

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Six Basic Tactics used by Parties and Politicians

• Stand on Principle
• Divide and Conquer
• Reform Your Own Party
• Triangulate
• Use a New Technology
• Mobilize your base (Nation) in a Time of Crisis

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Third Parties . . . .

• The Libertarians
• The Reform Party
• The Green Party

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How Parties Detract from democracy...

• That parties can perform valuable functions is no
  guarantee that they will.
• 2 Main Points
• those who organize and operate parties are
  motivated primarily by the desire to achieve
  their own political ends
• the primary motives are electoral Prospective
  public officials believe that forming a party
  will advance their chances of winning elections

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How Parties Detract from a healthy democracy...

• Parties can dictate what governments doat some
  point coordination becomes control
• Parties can confuse responsibility
• The temptation to kill the other partys
  initiative is especially strong when divided
  government existswhen a single party does not
  control the presidency and both houses of Congress

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How Parties Detract from a healthy democracy...

• Can suppress issues
• Can divide society
• May recruit hacks and celebrities
• Can oversimplify the electoral system

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Summary Point on Political Parties

• Scholars value parties because they can make very
  useful contributions to democratic politics and
  government.
• Moreover scholars generally do not examine
  parties in the abstract rather, they usually use
  the standard relative to having no parties

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Summary Point on Political Parties

• Parties still seem to matter in terms of their
  predictive capacity within Political
  ScienceParty ID still influences citizen
  behavior.
• Parties are still critical in terms of the actual
  determination of representation issues (e.g., see
  Figure 9.3 on the Process of Electoral
  Redistricting on p. 310)

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Decline of the Significance of Political Parties

• During the Fourth Party System, the
  Progressives (middle class reformers in the
  late 19th and early 20th century) succeeded in
  implementing several reforms that had as their
  cumulative effect an erosion of party strength in
  the U.S.
• They attacked the party machines (highly
  organized party under control of boss, based on
  patronage and control of government).

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Progressive Era Reforms that Eroded Party
Strength in U.S

• Direct Primary election
• The Civil Service
• The official ballot
• Personal registration

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Modern Era Changes that Have Eroded Party Strength

• Polling, the broadcast media, direct-mail
  fundraising, professional public relations and,
  above all the use of 30 -60 second television
  spots in election campaigns.
• All of these gave politicians a new set of
  political weapons that they could use in place of
  party organizations.

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Interest Groups

• Professor Daniel Holliman
• PSC 121
• American National Government and Politics

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Interests Groups--Factions

• Madison wrote liberty is to faction as air is to
  fire meaning organizations and interests will
  inevitably form in a free society.
• Madison believed that interests should be
  permitted to regulate themselves by competing
  with one another .
• This theory is called pluralism

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Interests Groups

• Pluralism --The theory that all interests are and
  should be free to compete for influence in the
  government. The outcome of this competition is
  compromise and moderation.

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Interests Groups

• The importance of interest groups...
• Interests groups exist in democracies because
  they represent assemblages of like-minded people
  who agree on public policy goals and join
  together to influence politics.
• Political action committees are designed to weld
  political influence in the outcomes of elections.
  They are the most powerful example of political
  interest groups.

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Interest Group Strategies

• Lobbying
• Access
• Litigation
• Going Public
• Partisan Politics

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Problems with Pluralism

• EE. Schattschneider, wrote in The Socialization
  of Conflict
• Argues that the pluralism doesnt hold up to
  elite dominance of policy--all groups are not
  represented or have equal access
• Regularizes conflict and means issues are left
  off the agenda.

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Problems with Pluralism

• Cozy relationships Look at the Enron Affair
• Iron Triangles-- stable cooperative relationship
  that develop between a congressional committee,
  an administrative agency and one or more
  supportive interest groups