POLS (3)- Political Parties

why create unwanted parties?

-they build stable Legislative and Electoral Alliances -mobilize voters -develop new electoral techniques to reach voters -Use Party Labels and Enforce Collective Responsibility

From the end of Reconstruction in 1876 until 1896, the third American party system settled into place. The Democrats and Republicans competed on nearly even terms.

4th party system

New Deal and Republican coalition=

5th party system

Jefferson challenged ____ for the presidency

Adams • recruited candidates for state and local offices across the states • gave Jefferson the ability to remove the Federalists and their influence from the White House and Congress

Other third parties that shook the political system:

Anti-Masonic Party and American Party ["Know- Nothings"] (pre-Civil War)

political party as issues

Burke

A body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavors the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed

Burke definition of political party

Republican party comes up as a third party system during the

Civil War

sought to protect the interests of farmers, tradesman, and agrarian states in general, and supported diplomatic relations with France; would later become the Democratic party and oldest political party in the world

Jefferson and Madison faction

Today party coalitions still retain strong traces of the

New Deal alignment

built winning coalitions

Nixon, Reagan, and Bush • Combined affluent economic conservatives with middle, working class social conservatives and the Christian Right. • They declared war on taxation, regulation, and welfare. • Made prominent their concerns over law and order and traditional family values. • Neither party has a completely stable and unified coalition.

the Democrats reacted to a severe economic downturn by adopting the_________ ______ and they nominated ____ ______ _____ as their presidential nominee

People's Party (Populist) platform William Jennings Bryan

dragging ex.

Ralph Nader

Tend to favor a smaller, cheaper federal government. • Advocate lower taxes. • Prefer less regulation of business

Republicans

Most salient change:

Republicans grew stronger. Democrats maintain an edge in party identifiers, but those who vote at higher rates tend to be Republicans (higher levels of formal education and higher incomes).

basic organizational structures set

Second party system

the changes have occurred gradually and at different times, so the new system's starting date is unclear. Most salient change: • ___________ grew stronger.

Sixth party system Republicans

The presidential election of 1824 featured four serious candidates (initially five) -Since no candidate received a majority of the electoral votes, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives -Clay eliminated and throws his support behind John Quincy Adams - who he agreed with on most political issues. This results in Adams overtaking Jackson in the House. Clay eventually becomes Adams' Secretary of State.

The "Corrupt Bargain"

rise of party machines

Third party system

Parties were widely considered to be a threat to

good government and public order

As the size of the electorate grew, so did the task of

identifying and attracting supporters

supporting populist monetary policy would:

increase the money supply • ease interest rates • and therefore lift the pressure on debtors, which included farmers and westerners

encourage the party to adopt a new position

leading

politics are not simply • a larger, more dispersed electorate had to be reached • parties turned to mass communication: newspapers, pamphlets, public letters, and printed speeches

local

Party entrepreneurs have simply redesigned party organizations to operate more effectively in today's _______-based, __________-centered electoral arena

media candidate

Most modern democracies have

more than two parties

Jackson and Van Buren introduce the ____ _____ _____; promoted as a more democratic alternative to the discredited congressional caucus

national party convention

organized competition requires

negotiating and maintaining electoral alliances

The _______ process enables the parties to solve the coordination problem posed by competing presidential aspirants

nomination

Organized competition for votes in Congress leads directly to

organized competition for votes in congressional elections

Electoral machinery had been managed through

patronage

Our system of elections, where only a single winner is chosen by ______ vote, generally reduced competition to

plurality; two

Parties are motivated to attract voters and get them to the

polls/registered

party line voting is partisans are

prevalent polarized

party machines lead to the

progressive era Reformers sought to destroy the machines by depriving them of patronage

An alternative to the American system is one based on

proportional representation

system in which people do not vote for a person- they vote for the political party with which they most agree

proportional representation (PR system)

With geographic representation, the legislature is divided according to districts with each legislator representing a particular

region

Republicans dominated and framed Democrats as taken over by agrarian interests UNTIL

the Great Depression

Jackson's strong presidency and personality generated some opposition and led to the creation of the

whig party

Today national party conventions merely certify the ______ of primary elections instead of choosing the presidential _______

winners nominees

two party system has:

-banned fusion tickets -Erected legal hurdles to getting on the ballot

Men have become more Republican over time • Women have not — creating the famous "______ _____" between parties.

gender gap

most important incentive of political parties

use party labels

Expediency persists: Parties developed and continue to endure because they have proven so ______ to politicians and voters.

useful

The more accurately a candidate's label predicts behavior in office, the more useful it is to ____ and the more it will continue to be used

voters

Electoral parties initiated new relationships between

voters and elected leaders

political party as elections

Downs

A team of men seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election

Downs definition of political party

People tend to vote strategically, i.e. if a voter's favorite party has no chance to win, they turn to the less objectionable of the major-party candidates who does have a chance to win. This is known as

Duverger's Law

Only after promise not to repeal the New Deal, but to administer it frugally, election of Republican

Eisenhower

Monroe was reelected with no competition four years later. There was so little party conflict, the time was called the

Era of Good Feelings

pattern of coalitional nature of American parties clearly illustrated

Fifth party system

creation of national parties

First party system

fall of party machines

Fourth party system

leading ex.

George Wallace

promoted commercial and manufacturing interests following the British economic model

Hamilton faction (federalists)

The American first party system was born in the first few Congresses as leaders with opposing views on national issues fought to prevail. The conflict involved two opposing factions:

Hamilton faction (federalists) Jefferson and Madison faction

big 4 of corrupt bargain

William H. Crawford (Treasury Secretary) John Quincy Adams (SOS) Henry Clay (House Speaker) Andrew Jackson (Senator)

Transition from political leadership from successful, prominent men (elites) who served out of duty to

ambitious people (many with status but it was no longer essential) who latched onto the party for personal advancement.

The Constitution's provisions for enacting laws and electing leaders put a huge premium on

building majority alliances across institutions and electoral units

parties are designed to excite voters emotionally so that they would be motivated to vote and avoid the

free-rider problem

have a personal stake in value of label

candidates

Party labels offer a shorthand cue that keeps voting decisions ____ and _____ ...as long as the labels are ______

cheap and simple informative

The first and most important issue was _____ _____ for African Americans

civil rights

Presidents were nominated by

congressional caucuses

no longer choose the party's candidate; caucus activists and voters in primaries do. They are important because of the image of the party that it portrays

conventions

Despite disdain, voters still rely heavily on party

cues

The variety and frequency of elections generated by the multilayered federal system made party management a

full-time job

allowed minor parties to boost their votes by nominating candidates also nominated by major parties

fusion tickets

poliical parties create

democracy

• Are more inclined to regulate business in behalf of consumers and the environment. • Are more supportive of government programs designed to improve domestic welfare. • Would spend less on national defense. • Are more concerned with "fairness" and equality.

democrats

Since the beginning, the major parties have been

diverse, unwieldy coalitions

encourage the party to move back to an old position

dragging

two types of third parties

dragging leading

After the adoption of the Constitution, suffrage expanded

egalitarian spirit of the frontier which gradually eclipsed the habits of deference

Each political party submits a list of names prior to the

election

T/F Republicans supported Populist monetary policy (making silver as well as gold a monetary standard):

false Democrats

T/F there was no political conflict during Era of Good Feelings

false -it took place within one party rather than between two (Democratic-Republicans)

Networks of leaders and activists assembled to mobilize electoral support became the

first party organizations

To maximize their vote share relative to their opponents, parties engage in ______ maneuvers

flanking

Today, full-time professionals manage

the parties

Parties developed because the institutional structures and processes established by the Constitution made them

too useful to forgo

in the early days of the Republic, electioneering followed

traditional forms

T/F Conventions no longer choose the party's candidate; caucus activists and voters in primaries do

true

T/F Display at convention is not without risk- party activists often hold more extreme views on the issues of the day than do ordinary party voters

true

T/F Electoral alliances fail if they cannot get enough people to vote for their candidates

true

T/F having party labels requires some sacrifice of preference (if you don't necessarily agree with party but do not want to resist party label)

true

T/F not all members of a party support their party's modal positions.

true

T/F the Constitution does not mention political parties

true

T/F the patronage system was destroyed with the reforms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

true

the U.S. has a ___- party system

two

Major parties, with incentives to expand their electoral coalitions, help maintain the

two-party system

geographic representation fragments the political system and thus promotes the

two-party system

Overall political and organizational expedience may explain parties' existence, but the activities that maintain them contribute to successful democratic politics in

unforeseen ways

proportional representation features:

• A party will get roughly the same proportion of seats in parliament as the proportion of the votes it received in the election. • Proportional representation promotes ideological representation and helps to preserve smaller parties. • Votes for their other candidates are not wasted. • Because people have diverse ideas, proportional representation tends to produce multi- party systems. • Some countries try to combine the benefits of both systems.

Decentralized, Fragmented Party Coalitions features:

• People can specifically identify their representative and they know who to contact with their opinions. • Representatives must maintain contact with the voters who will decide whether they return to the legislature. • This system favors moderate political parties that can create coalitions to gain sizeable amounts of voters

Consequences of Progressive Reforms:

• Turnout declined due to tighter registration laws, the Australian ballot, and literacy tests. • Shift from parties to candidates => seed of candidate-centered politics • Incentives shifted from material to non- material: so did who participated: working class no longer base; middle class instead • Parties weaker, but more entrenched => treated as quasi public entities • Advent of primary elections encouraged dissidents to work within the established parties

there are major incentives for party building Political Parties are incentivized to:

• build stable legislative and electoral alliances • mobilize voters • develop new electoral techniques • use party labels and enforce collective responsibility

The Republican coalition was a smaller, inverted image of the Democratic coalition:

• business and professional people • upper-income Protestants • residents of small towns and cities in the Northeast and the Midwest

John Quincy Adams with help of Martin Van Buren. Established:

• central committees set up in Washington and Nashville • promoted the formation of state organization which promoted Jackson clubs and committees in towns • chain of newspapers established to support the cause • local politicians saw Jackson as a vehicle for their own ambitions

Progressives sought reforms:

• civil service reform (Pendleton Act) • Australian (Secret) ballot • primary elections

The presidential selection rules

• incentives for building electoral alliances across districts and states • organizational work required for the collective pursuit of political office results in a national party organization

Federalists associated with unpopular policies:

• lost election and began to fade from national politics • on wrong side of War of 1812 • Rufus King crushed by James Monroe in 1816 and Monroe reelected without significant opposition in 1820

The Republican Party:

• organized in 1854 as a coalition of forces on the issue of slavery; example of a successful challenge to the two-party system. • Additional focus on protective tariff & a transcontinental railway as well as promising farmers free land for homesteading => appealing to business and commercial interests • serves as one example of a successful challenge to the two-party system

party machines:

• party organizations reached their peak of development during the third party system • built on simple principles of exchange: favors and services for votes on election day • Party machines were often not discernible from the local government • regularly attacked as corrupt and inefficient

Republicans win with Abraham Lincoln and

• triggered South's secession from Union and then the Civil War • Republicans emerged as the party of victory and union • Defeated oncoming Vampire scourge

Basic pattern of two party competition continues:

• two broad, fractious coalitions persists • party coalitions remain fractious because party entrepreneurs pursuing majorities must combine diverse groups that are neither natural allies nor disposed to pay high conformity costs for the sake of the party

As party-system formed, it changed, but a number of basic features remained throughout:

• two-party competition • decentralized, fragmented, party coalitions • professional politicians

FDR and the New Deal Coalition:

• white segregationists with northern African Americans • progressive intellectuals with urban machine politicians • union members and poor farmers • Catholics and Baptists