OUTLINE NOTES FOR POLITICAL PARTIES

I. Definition of an functions of political parties

a. Political party - is a group that seeks to elect candidates to public office by supplying them with labels by which they are known to the voters (electorate).

b. Functions of political parties:

II. Two party system in the U.S. –

a. major parties – Democrat and Republican – each parties goal is to gain power by winning elections. Each party is a coalition - or a large group of people with various interests who join to take action to reach common goals. Parties have to compromise to make their goals appeal to many people. Parties with broad goals who are not too radical in their platforms win elections.

b. minor parties may be on the ballot but have little chance of winning

c. Four reasons for the two party system –

1. history –

2. Tradition –

3. Elections –

III. Consensus –

a. one party systems – dictatorships –

b. multi-party systems -

c. Party Membership-

1. In the U.S. no one is forced to join a party. It is strictly voluntary.

2. Each party tries to win voters over to its side. Over time the same groups of Americans tend to support the same parties. African Americans, Catholics, Jews, and labor union members are often Democrats. White males, Protestants (especially evangelical) and business people are often Republicans.

3. Most people are loyal to the same party as their parents.

4. The number of voters identifying themselves as Independents has grown tremendously in the last 25 years or so. Independents are not loyal to any one party.

IV. History of American Political parties

a. Beginnings – began with the ratification of the Constitution – Federalists vs. Antifederalists

1. Federalists –

2. Anti-Federalists –

3. Founders disliked political parties; viewed them as factions

b. Political party eras:

1. The Era of the Democrats 1800-1860 (Anti-Federalists in power)

c. During Andrew Jackson’s administration and up to the Civil War:

d. In 1854, a coalition of Whigs and antislavery Democrats formed the modern Republican party.

2. The Era of the Republicans, 1860-1932

3. The Return of the Democrats, 1932-1968

a. attitudes toward government changed because of the Great Depression. People disillusioned with the party in power: the Republicans.

b. Democrats built a strong new base of southerners-

c. The Start of a New Era, 1968-2000

1. Democrats divided in 1960’s by social issues and the Vietnam War. The South in particular disliked the pro-civil rights policies.

2. In 1968, Republican Richard M. Nixon elected and was reelected in 1972. Had to resign in 1974 because of the Watergate scandal.

3. Distrust of government at all time high after Watergate and voters seem to be less willing to wait for results from their elected leaders. This led to a desire for less government. Jimmy Carter, Democrat defeats Gerald Ford in 1976 only to lose to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.

4. The Great Communicator – former actor Ronald Reagan a big hit with the public. Popular president and was reelected in 1984 despite a significant recession in 1981-1982.

5. Republican George Bush (Sr.) elected in 1988 but as the economy soured in the early 1990’s public support for the Republican party was replaced for a desire for change again. Bush defeated by Clinton in 1992.

6. Democrat William Jefferson Clinton elected in 1992 and Democrats regain the White House and maintained it through the 1996 election to this year.

a. Election 2000? During much of the last era we had divided government with one party controlling the White House and the other controlling Congress. Divided government can be both an advantage and a problem. Advantage – no party able to run over voters with policies that are unpopular and unwanted. Disadvantage – divided government can mean gridlock can occur where the two branches of government bicker and cannot accomplish anything. The government shut down at least once during Clinton’s administrations and have come close several other years.

V. Minor Parties:

a. ideological parties

b. Single-issue parties –

c. Economic protest parties –

d. Splinter parties –

Examples:

1. split off from the Republican party: “Bull Moose” Progressive Party, 1912

La Follette Progressive party, 1912

2. split off from the Democratic party: States’ Rights (Dixiecrats) party, 1948

American Independent Party (George Wallace), 1968

3. split off from both Democrats and Republicans:

United We Stand Party (Ross Perot) 1992, Reform party (Ross Perot) 1996

VI. The Organization of Political Parties

a. main players in the party are leaders, officeholders, and voters.

b. Parties have local, state, and national organizations

1. National Party Machinery:

a. National convention –

b. National committee –

c. National chairperson –

d. State and Local Party Machinery:

1. State party chairperson leads the State party committee. Runs party activity within the State. This committee may or may not work closely with the party’s national committee.

2. Local party structures vary because of each State’s election laws. For the election of city council members the party divides the city into small units called wards. These are divided further into precincts. The Hillcrest area will form the precinct that votes at Hillcrest High which would be called the polling place.

VII. Party platforms and Party Differences

· The typical party platform – the official statement of party policy- is often a vague and extremely long document that hardly anyone reads.

· They are vague by design, giving voters few reasons to vote against the party. Most people believe that parties stand for something. (i.e. business and professional people believe that the Republican party best serves their interests, while workers tend to look to the Democrats to speak for them.

· The proportion of voters who believed the parties to have substantial differences between them increased sharply during the Reagan years. Parties became more polarized, that is the Democrats became more liberal and the Republicans more conservative.

· Party platforms rarely help elect anyone but platform positions can hurt a presidential candidate. Radical platforms like that of the Republican party in the last two elections tended to frighten away moderate voters. The platform is drafted by the party faithful so Republican faithful will be more conservative than the average voter and Democratic faithful will be more liberal than the average voter.

· Once elected, politician are rarely reminded of what their platform position was on a given issue.

· 1996 party platforms

Democratic platform stressed: opportunity, responsibility, security, freedom, peace, and community. It spelled out their commitment to improving education, guaranteeing economic security for families, fighting crime, and strengthening national security as well as supporting a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion stressing that it was out of respect for the individual American on this difficult issue.

Republican platform stressed: broad issues as those above, but emphasized social issues. Example: opposed same-sex marriages, supported a California bill to eliminate affirmative action, called for the abolition of the Department of Education, endorsed a constitutional amendment making abortion illegal. This in particular worried moderate Republicans who pressed for and got an appendix added to the platform that expressed “tolerance” for opposing views on abortion.

· Typically both parties have been moderate, because in the general election (November) they must appeal to the middle-of-the-road average voter to win.

· Party identification is the best indicator of how a person will vote. It is the one long-term element in voting choice. Candidates and issues come and go.

VIII. How different are the parties?

· Sometimes criticized for being too similar and too mainstream.

· Both parties are moderate centrist parties

· Important differences do exist both in the positions the two parties take on some issues and in how the public perceives the parties.

· One party will be generally thought to be better at dealing with one issue while the other will be thought to be better at dealing with another.

· The parties have different racial, religious, or regional makeups.

· Public support for the parties tends to swing back and forth between them with national tides that benefit one party over another temporarily.

· George Wallace is famous for stating in his flight from the Democratic party, “There’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the two.”

IX. The Future of Major Parties:

number of people who belong to political parties has been going down since the 1960’s

Reasons: