Introduction to American Government. Department of Government and Politics at Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT

1. Chapter 9: Political Parties

2. What Is a Political Party?
• Groups seeking to
elect candidates,
operate government,
determine laws.
2

3. How are parties different from
interest groups?
IG‟s do not operate government,
just influence it.
Don‟t select political candidates,
but support them.
Focus on single issues.

5. Three Components of Political Parties

6. Functions of Political Parties
Recruit, organize candidates
Mobilize citizens to participate
Simplify alternatives
Provide opposition to party in power
Peaceful transfers of power

7. Two Party, Minor Party, Multi-Party Systems
America:
Dominant two party system
Republican and Democratic Parties

8. U.S. Minor (or third) Parties
Personality led minor
parties:
don‟t last long
Joseph Smith,
Independent candidate,
(1844)
Theodore Roosevelt
Progressive Bull Moose
Party (1912)
Ross Perot‟s Reform
Party (1992)

9. Ideologically driven: last long
Prohibition Party
Libertarian Party
Right to Life Party
Green Party
Natural Law party
Socialist and communist parties

10. Third Party Influence
 Never won presidency
 Won: handful of congressional seats
Two governorships Jesse Ventura, Reform Party, MN
Lowell Weicker, Independent Party, CT
 Senator Lieberman‟s Connecticut for
Lieberman Party (2008)

12. Influence On Other Candidates
 Perot, H.W. Bush, Clinton (1992)
Perot won 20% of popular vote
(19 million votes)

13. 2000 Presidential Race
Ralph Nader (Green Party)
George Bush (Republican)
Al Gore (Democrat)
Gore lost FL by few
hundred votes
Thousands vote for Nader

15. Third parties think
Republicans and Democrats
barely different

16. Most Other Countries
Multiparty systems (Israel, Italy).
Coalition governments needed to govern

17. The Voters

18. How Did You Choose?
PARTY IDENTIFICATION
Usually determined from childhood
Your party affiliation?
Who influenced that decision?

19. PARTISAN REALIGNMENT AND DEALIGNMENT
Realignment
“New and stable pattern of partisan loyalties”
Caused by Critical elections
Last Electoral Realignment
o Great Depression (1932)
o Republicans mishandled crisis
o Non-traditional coalitions form for Democrats:
· Black Americans
· Organized labor
· Southern Democrats
· Working class, Catholic voters

20. Possible Realignment?
1980s Reagan Wins Two Terms
1994 Republican Takeover of
Congress
Bush Wins Two Terms
Was this a realignment?

21. Two kinds of realignments
Major party defeated, disappears,
new one emerges
Both parties continue, voters shift
loyalty
De-alignment
Rejection of both parties; rise of
independents

22. Parties In Government

23. Party Platforms
Gun control
Welfare
Affirmative action
Taxes
Crime
International relations
Homeland security / war on terror
Abortion
School choice
Marriage

28. The Formative Years:
Federalists and Anti Federalists

29.  Parties not in new Constitution
 Non-existent in GW‟s first election
Formed between GW‟s 2nd and TJ‟s 1st term
 Hamilton: Federalists,
Jefferson Democratic-Republicans
 America‟s First two-party system
 Both wanted control of presidency,
congress, states

30. Quarrel Between Federalist and Democratic Republican in Congress

31. Washington vs. Scholars
 President Washington:
Upset at party formation
Farewell address:
“nation would suffer by
„…effects of party‟”
 Scholars:
Founding parties stabilized
democracy
Parties necessary
institution
Who is right?

32. Creation of Republican Party
Federalist Party collapses (1816)
Era of Good Feelings (1816-1830)
Only Democratic-Republicans existed
Competition between individuals, not
parties.

33. Period of national purpose… desired unity
Lull in partisan disputes
James Monroe worked to eliminate parties
altogether

34.  National 2 Party Rule:
Whigs and Democrats
(1830s & 1840s)
 Whig Party disintegrates
(1856)
 Anti-slavery parties form,
strongest is Republican Party.
Northern Whigs join
Republicans.
 Democratic-Republican
Party: pro-slavery party

38. National Conventions
2008 Democratic National Convention, Denver;
2008 Republican National Convention,
Minneapolis.

41.  Place where candidates are nominated
 Composed of state delegates
 State population and party support
determine state‟s delegate numbers
 Caucus or state primaries determine who
delegate‟s are

42. 1976 RNC Convention, Kansas City
Ford prevails over Reagan, 1,187 to 1070
1976 Reagan Speech at RNC Convention

43. 2012 Republican
Primary Delegate
Count

44. Modern Changes
Primary Contests
Primary contests select most delegates
Candidate known before convention
Lack of suspense -- declining viewership
Coverage by major networks reduced
Suggestions to do away with convention

45. Television
Made conventions tightly scripted
Each party presents best possible light
Demonstrate united front
Parties now avoid hashing out differences

46. Conventions Still Fulfill Important
Functions
Draft Party Platform
Parties mature and grow
Caucuses, receptions, breakfasts, etc…
Energize activists
Ticket emerges with poll bounce

47. 2008 DNC and RNC National
Conventions
RNC 2008
Convention
DNC 2008
Convention

48. Manipulating the Votes of
Voters: Gerrymandering
Mapping districts for advantages
Named for Elbridge Gerry, former MA governor…
Designed district coincidently shaped like
salamander
Every 10 years states redistrict
Party in power controls process
Districts must be equal in population

49. Divided Government

50. One party wins presidency, other wins
majority in one or both houses of
Congress

51. Benefits
Government works better
Reason:
Each party has opportunity to block most
divisive measures proposed by other party
Evidence:
Four Points

52. Rate of growth of federal spending
usually lower
 Probability that major reform will last
usually higher
Liberties more insulated
Prospect of major war is less

53. Probability that major reform
will last:
Reagan‟s tax laws largely
survived
Exception:
Great Society programs (1960s)

54. Four wars in 20th
century initiated by
Democratic President and
Congress

 Iraq War initiated by
Republican President and
Republican Congress

55. Only long period of unusual
fiscal expansion:
Kennedy/Johnson Administration
One party control in D.C.
Brought Great Society & Vietnam
War

56. Questions
 What does it mean: Parties are a
necessary evil?
 Are teachers biased toward political
parties?
"We are slow to change our minds about
things that matter to us or shift our
loyalties." Do we ever?