The Recent History of American Parties

1
The Recent History of American Parties

• Session 15

2
Parties Decline and Individual Candidates Become
More Important

• Party-Centered Campaigns to Candidate-Centered
  Campaigns Why?
• Legal 1) Progressive Era reforms the direct
  primary for congressional candidates, civil
  service instead of patronage 2) congressional
  districts that are not consistent with party
  organizations (1960s)

3

• Demographic education, mobility, decline in
  immigration
• Technological
• Media people got their information from media
  and not parties
• Campaign Professionals Public Relations,
  Political Consultants, Advertising, Direct Mail
  these professionals made the party apparatus less
  necessary

4

• Party Reform
• Changes in the presidential nomination process
  McGovern-Fraser Commission
• Amateurs play a larger role and care more about
  candidates and issues than winning
• Campaign Finance Federal Election Campaign Act
  
• State and local party participation becomes
  unwelcome
• PACs, Contribution Limits

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Consequences of Weakened Parties

• Less able to structure the choices that the
  public was offered
• Less useful in providing information that helped
  voters make their choices
• Less able to develop party unity among elected
  officials because the elected officials because
  the party was not responsible for success

6
National Party Organization Resurgence

• Decline Gradual, and at the local level
• Resurgence Rapid, and centered in the national
  parties in DC
• Incumbents thrive in a candidate-centered process
  but other candidates do not. Parties realized
  candidates need access to technical expertise,
  political information, money, and other
  resources.
• Crises motivate change

7
Parties in Decline?

• A new form of party has emerged, one that is in
  service to its ambitious politicians but not in
  control of them as the mass party of the past
  sought to be.
• John Aldrich
• Why Parties

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Electoral crises required a response . . .

• Republicans
• Watergate 1974, 1976
• Democrats Two Stages
• Phase I the changes in the nomination process
• 1968 Convention contributed to decline but also
  to resurgence
• Phase II the defeat in 1980
• 1980 Loss in presidential election

I dont belong to an organized political party.
Im a Democrat. Will Rogers
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Institutionalized National Parties
Organizational Strength

• Finances
• Hard Money Contributions
• Soft Money
• Infrastructure
• Staff
• Consultants
• Interest Groups
• Party Building at the State and Local Level

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Institutionalized National Parties
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Soft Money Contributors and Party Organizations

• DCCCs Speakers Club
• DSCCs Leadership Council
• NRCCs Congressional Leadership Council
• NRSCs Senate Trust Club

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National Party Campaigning

• Candidate Recruitment and Nomination
• The General Election Presidential Campaigns
• The General Election Congressional Races
• National Agenda Setting
• Fundraising in Campaigns Party-Connected
  Contributions

13
National Party Campaigning (continued)

• Targeting the Contributions Maximizing Gains in
  Seats
• Leadership PACs
• Campaign Services
• Campaign Management
• Gauging Public Opinion
• Opposition Research