Key Ideas from Chapter 11: Political Parties

A critical election is one in which groups of voters change their loyalty from one party to another.

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A plurality election rule stipulates that the person winning the most votes in the election (even if not a majority of all votes) wins the office.

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In 2012, 38 percent of Americans identified themselves as independents, 32 percent as Democrats, and 24 percent as Republicans.

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Initiative - a means by which voters consider measures to change local ordinances, state statutes, or constitutions.

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One of these reasons involves the electoral system established by the Constitution.

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Political parties are not defined or even mentioned in the Constitution.

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The two parties have become increasingly polarized since the 1950s, with fewer Republicans and Democrats taking moderate positions.

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Those who strongly identify with a party are not only more likely to go to the polls, they are also more likely to support the party in other ways, such as through contributing their time, energy, and money to political campaigns. These people are known as party activists, and they are relatively rare.

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A political party consists of three separate components: the party organization, the party in government, and the party in the electorate.

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According to Duverger's Law, in this type of system there will only be two parties that are able to elect a significant number of candidates to political office.

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Advantages of the American Two-Party System Promotes stability Politics reflect median of public opinion Checks and balances political power Guarantees a legislative majority Simplifies vote choice

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After a long, heated primary battle throughout the spring and early summer of 2008, Barack Obama emerged as the Democratic presidential nominee.

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Although Democrats and Republicans in Congress often disagree when it comes to major policy issues, this does not mean that they are incapable of achieving compromise.

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An important aspect of the election of 1800 is that the tie in the Electoral College vote for president was not between a Federalist candidate and a Democratic-Republican candidate; the tie was between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, both of whom identified with the Democratic-Republican Party.

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And much of the policy debate that takes place in government and among voters is shaped by the parties' opposing positions on the proper scope of government in our political, economic, and social lives.

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Another important trend in party identification over time: an increasing number of Americans do not identify with either of the two major parties. Those who do not identify with a political party are known as independents, and their numbers have climbed over the last two generations.

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Another obstacle third parties face is the way in which the two major parties quickly adapt to absorb the voters mobilized by reform efforts.

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As it turned out, Obama did follow Lincoln's approach in modeling his cabinet. Given his lengthy and bitter primary contest against Hillary Clinton, she could be considered his William Seward; accordingly, Obama granted her the position of secretary of state.

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Because candidates are able to campaign with little help from the party organization, the party has fewer tools that it can use to ensure that those candidates who run under the party banner adhere to its policy programs.

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By the late 1870s, the Reconstruction effort had become unpopular and was being overshadowed by new issues, including government corruption and economic depression.

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Candidates who run for office under a party label, people who work for a party, and voters who identify with a party are not obligated to work together.

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Consequently, the election of 1796 resulted in a Federalist elected as president (John Adams) and a Democratic-Republican elected as vice president (Thomas Jefferson). This event, in conjunction with the subsequent election of 1800 in which there was a tie in the Electoral College, led to the passage of the 12th Amendment to the Constitution.

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Democrats capitalized on these issues in addition to benefiting from continued Southern resentment of Republican Reconstruction policies. In 1874, the Democratic Party enjoyed great electoral success, taking control of the House of Representatives and ushering in a new era of competitive electoral politics.

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Disadvantages of the American Two-Party System No new ideas Slow to change Leads to no difference in party platforms Limits access to minor parties Limits voter choice Does not encourage coalition building Leads to polarized and adversarial politics

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During presidential campaigns, most candidates run for office under the banner of a political party. At election time, many citizens make vote choices based on their political party identification and the policies presented by the candidates for each party.

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During the Founding period, two distinct philosophical camps organized around ratification of the Constitution.

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During this period, waves of immigrants unfamiliar with American electoral politics and political culture were entering the political arena and participating in elections. Political machines would take advantage of the voting power of these immigrant populations by offering services such as jobs, food, and housing in exchange for votes.

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Duverger's Law - the principle by which political systems with single-member plurality districts are likely to have a two-party system.

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Each party then has state and local committees that work with the national committee to carry out the organization's tasks, which include recruiting and nominating candidates, defining the party platform, and getting candidates elected to office.

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Ever since parties first emerged on the U.S. political landscape, however, there have been alternatives to the two dominant political parties. Third parties, or minor parties, serve an important function in the American political system.

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Ever since the late 1930s—with rare exceptions—more of the population has identified with the Democratic Party than with the Republican Party.

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Finally, the party organization is also limited today in the amount of influence that it has over citizens. Before the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1888 required that public employees be hired according to merit, parties were able to act as political machines.

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For a brief period, these two parties were fiercely competitive. Because the Electoral College was designed to work without reference to parties, the Constitution originally stipulated that the candidate receiving the most electoral votes would become president and the runner-up would become vice president.

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For a number of reasons, the U.S. possesses (and will likely continue to possess) a system dominated by two parties.

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Furthermore, most Americans identify with one of the two major parties in U.S. politics today—the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.

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Given the central role of Hamilton and Jefferson in the early development of parties in the U.S., they are often called the fathers of American political parties.

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Heading into the primary season, Hillary Clinton was recognized as the frontrunner. She had raised an impressive sum of money and was the media favorite to win the election.

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If this dramatic change in party loyalty persists for several elections, it is known as an electoral realignment.

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If we think about the three independent components of political parties—the party organization, the party in government, and the party in the electorate—only one appears to play an increasingly powerful role.

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In doing so, they open up a channel for Americans who are disenchanted with the two major parties to continue to express themselves through institutional means.

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In many other countries, a legislative district can be represented by multiple individuals from different parties. In this proportional representation system, smaller parties stand a chance of winning at least a few seats.

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In reaction to the strong federal presence in the region initiated by the Radical Republicans in Congress, Southern voters gravitated toward the Democratic Party. Often termed the "Solid South," electoral politics in this region of the country would be dominated by the Democratic Party for nearly a century.

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In sum, responsible party government unifies representatives in opposition to each other and makes electoral decisions easier for voters. But politicians who depart from the model and defy their party may actually do a better job of representing their own positions as well as those of their constituents.

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In the U.S., on the other hand, the single congressional seat goes to the candidate who wins the most votes. This makes citizens less inclined to waste their votes on a minor party candidate who stands little chance of winning.

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In this organizational system, power is centralized under a national committee; the two largest such organizations are the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Republican National Committee (RNC).

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It is clear from this pattern that neither party can legitimately claim dominance of the political system in this contemporary period of electoral politics.

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James Madison agreed that political parties could be divisive, but he believed that the best way to control this dangerous potential of parties was not by discouraging their formation altogether. To Madison, political parties (one type of "faction") represented the organized views of a free citizenry.

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Not long after ratification of the new Constitution, two parties had developed to contest the presidential election of 1796 upon Washington's departure. The Federalist Party, an offshoot of the Federalists, was led by Alexander Hamilton. The Democratic-Republican Party, an offshoot of the anti-Federalists, was led by Thomas Jefferson.

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Of course, the party that holds the most seats in either chamber of Congress occupies the most powerful leadership roles—including Speaker of the House, House majority leader, and Senate majority leader—and is granted additional privileges when it comes to making committee assignments and selecting committee chairs.

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One conception of a political world structured by strong political parties is the responsible party government model. This theoretical model highlights how parties can provide a link between voters and elected officials, and it illustrates how the three components of a party—the party organization, the party in government, and the party in the electorate—can play an important role in supporting democratic government.

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Over the last two decades, the balance of power in both Congress and the White House has swung back and forth between the two major parties. From the Republican presidency of George H.W. Bush (1989-1992), to the Democratic presidency of Bill Clinton (1993-2000), to the Republican presidency of George W. Bush (2001-2008), to the Democratic presidency of Barack Obama (2009-present), the two parties have fought for control of government.

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Party activists - those who support a political party through campaign-related activities beyond voting.

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Party identification can therefore be subject to change, but it generally remains stable throughout an individual's life.

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Party identification does not represent a person's deep-rooted affinity for a party so much as it represents a running tally that a person keeps on a party. In other words, one's party identification entails an ongoing evaluation of a party that can evolve in response to changing circumstances or significant political events.

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Party platform - the document or statement developed by a political party to include its official positions on issues of public concern.

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Pleasing constituents often requires representatives and senators to work across party lines even if it upsets party leadership in Congress.

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Political machine - a party organization at the state or local level that sought political influence by offering rewards, in the form of government jobs and services, to sympathetic voters and party workers.

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Political party: An organized coalition of interests that seeks to influence government and policy by getting member elected to public office and by coordinating the actions of elected officials.

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President Washington strongly believed that political parties were divisive, that they served to agitate the community and incite political animosities. What was needed, according to Washington, was unity, and political parties were antithetical to this goal.

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Progressives are perhaps best remembered for their dogged attacks on corporate corruption.

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Recall - a means for voters to remove an elected official before the expiration of the officeholder's term.

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Referendum - a means for citizens to participate in policymaking by voting directly on a variety of measures, including initiatives or recalls.

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Shortly after the ratification of the Constitution, members of Congress began informally organizing into political parties. The two major parties of the time, the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans, formed working groups.

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Similar coordination can be seen in the executive branch of government. Once elected, presidents generally use their appointment power to nominate fellow party members to head executive departments.

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Since the election of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican to win the presidency, the two major parties to compete for political power have been the Democrats and Republicans.

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Sometimes called a party manifesto or agenda, the party platform typically describes the party's position on policy issues and the actions the party proposes to take. These policy goals can be referred to as party programs.

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Specifically, the model suggests that parties can increase government accountability if voters are given clear policy choices by the parties and then hold the parties responsible for carrying out campaign promises at the next election.

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Strong party leadership can facilitate quick and significant policy reform. Nevertheless, the responsible party government model does not accurately characterize American politics, as evinced by the Blue Dog Democrats in Congress who, deferring to their constituents over their party, nearly derailed health care reform.

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The Democrats call their working group a caucus, and the Republicans call theirs a conference.

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The Federalists, whose ranks included Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison, believed that the survival of the young nation required a stronger central government.

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The Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs would dominate national electoral politics until the 1850s, when the issue of territorial expansion of slavery created a major fissure among the Whigs that led to the development of the Republican Party in 1854.

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The Republican Party's dominance was marked by a second critical election, in 1896. In this election, Republican William McKinley defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan to win the presidency.

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The U.S. political system has been dominated by the Republican and Democratic parties for most of its history.

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The United States is characterized by a system in which two major political parties compete for control of the government.

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The United States is characterized by a two-party system.

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The amendment separated the electoral votes for president and vice president, thus allowing candidates to run together on partisan tickets and greatly diminishing the potential for scenarios like those occurring in 1796 and 1800.

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The anti-Federalists, including Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, and Samuel Adams, feared that a strong central government would threaten individual rights and state sovereignty.

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The battle over health care reform during the first two years of the Obama administration illustrates both the possibilities and limitations of responsible party government in the United States.

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The better part of this period, known as Reconstruction, was marked by massive federal intervention in the war-torn South.

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The coordination among elected officials who share the same party identification is particularly clear in Congress.

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The decentralized nature of the Democratic and Republican party organizations limits the power of the national committee over the state and local committees.

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The fact that party workers, candidates, and members act somewhat independently highlights the three facets of political parties: the party organization, the party in government, and the party in the electorate. These separate components allow a party to carry out a number of functions, increasing its influence over both government and public policy.

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The first critical election to shift power between the Democrats and Republicans was the election of 1860, which divided the partisan loyalty of Northern and Southern states. As previously mentioned, Republicans successfully elected Abraham Lincoln to presidential office in 1860.

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The first partisan tool was patronage. At this time, government jobs were doled out to partisans as a reward for political support. With the passage of the Pendleton Act of 1883, however, patronage was supplanted with merit-based hiring practices to govern the staffing of the federal civil service.

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The influence of parties can be seen throughout American political life. Parties help to informally structure elections by running candidates for office under specific party labels.

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The introduction of new media in the 20th and 21st centuries has led to a much more visual and much more candidate-centered brand of politics. As candidates continue to take the front seat in elections, political parties struggle to find ways to secure voter loyalties.

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The national committee is also limited in its ability to force state and local committees to adopt its policy positions regarding regional issues, which gives the state and local committees quite a bit of power to establish their own agendas.

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The parties began to lose their stranglehold over government and politics in the early 20th century as Progressives mobilized public support behind social reform.

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The party in government refers to the members of a party who have been elected to national, state, or local office.

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The party in the electorate refers to all of the citizens who feel an attachment to a political party—that is, the voters who support the party. Typically, this attachment is known as party identification.

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The party organization is further limited in its power over candidates who run under its banner. In the past, parties were responsible for both recruiting candidates and running their campaigns. Today, candidates are able to raise substantial sums of money on their own or use personal funds to hire independent campaign managers, so they do not need to rely as much on funding from the party in order to run a campaign.

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The party organization refers to a set of structures at the national, state, and local levels. At all of these levels, paid and volunteer party leaders work to achieve partisan goals.

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The people who work for a party organization at the national, state, or local level are responsible for a number of tasks, including recruiting candidates, developing political strategies, helping citizens register to vote, mobilizing supporters to vote, raising money, and conducting research on the opposition party and its candidates.

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The power of parties in government shows signs of being on the rise, while the power of parties as organizations and in the electorate appears to be on the decline.

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The president and his administration then coordinate with members of their party in Congress to accomplish policy goals.

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The role that parties play in government and the influence that they have on elections have changed since political parties first developed shortly after the ratification of the Constitution.

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The second partisan tool was that of the political machine.

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The stock market crash of 1929 proved to be a major crisis—one that the Republican Party and the Hoover administration were ill-equipped to address. As a result, the Democrats swept control of both the White House and Congress in the election of 1932.

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These working groups allow members of Congress to coordinate their legislative efforts around the policy agendas of the two parties. The party working groups make decisions concerning committee assignments, committee leadership positions, and party leadership positions.

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They often spotlight issues that are important to members of the public but unaddressed by the two major parties. Alternatively, they may adopt positions on major issues that distinguish them from the two major parties.

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This period of history is often called the Progressive Era because of the organized efforts of Progressives to expand political participation and eliminate corporate and political corruption.

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This period overlapped with a time known as the golden age of parties, when political parties enjoyed greater strength than at any other time in American history. What made them so powerful? Progressive reformers targeted two tools of political parties that they saw as facilitating corruption.

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Those who identify with a political party are more likely to turn out to vote than those who consider themselves independents.

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Through national, state, and local efforts, the Progressive Party brought about significant reforms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the area of electoral politics, the Progressives secured the direct election of senators, through ratification of the 17th Amendment in 1913, and women's suffrage, through ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. They also introduced electoral reforms such as the Australian (or secret) ballot and the direct primary. And at the state and local levels, they introduced avenues for increased popular participation in government through the initiative, referendum, and recall.

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Whereas the power of the party as an organization has declined over time, the power of the party in government—and in Congress in particular—appears to be increasing.

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While electoral politics throughout the previous era had focused on race relations and economic policy, the political agenda at this time focused on federal regulation of monopolies, expansion of suffrage to women, corruption in business and in government, labor standards, and immigration.

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Why did the Constitution create a system of government independent of parties? And why, then, have we nonetheless had a two-party political system for much of our history? First, political parties were left out of the framework of the Constitution because there was widespread disagreement at the Founding over the value of parties to democratic life.

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With the limits on patronage established by the Pendleton Act, political parties have much less influence on the electorate.

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Without an opposition party, the Democratic-Republicans turned inward, and internal dissension threatened to fracture the party by the election of 1824.

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