GOVT 312: Political Parties and Campaigns

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GOVT 312 Political Parties and Campaigns

• Lecture 7 U.S. Party Systems

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Party Systems

• Party systems
• The number of political parties within a
  democracy
• Their relative size and ideology
• In the context of American politics the
  coalitions that constitute the two major
  political parties

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U.S. Party Systems

• First party system (1788-1828)
  Federalists vs. Democrat-Republicans
• Second party system (1828-1860)
  Democrats vs. Whigs (Democrat-Republicans
  split)
• Third party system (1860-1898)
  Democrats vs. Republicans (Third Party
  Abolitionists)
• Fourth party system (1898-1932)
  Democrats vs. Republicans (Third Parties
  Populists, Progressives)
• Fifth party system (1932-1968)
  Democrats vs. Republicans
• ?

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Elections within Party Systems

• Maintaining the dominant party wins
• Deviating the dominant party loses a short term
• Realigning a major rearrangement of the party
  coalitions

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Realigning Elections (Burnham)

• Happen about once a generation, every 32 years.
• Are like a political earthquake
• Voter turnout rises
• Third parties are active
• End result is new party coalitions

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The New Deal Coalition

• 1928 Democrats are first to nominate a Catholic
  (Al Smith) as a presidential candidate
• FDRs New Deal program built a new coalition of
  Southern Democrats with Catholics and
  minorities/poor.

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The Sixth Party System

• Sixth party system (1968-present)
  Democrats vs. Republicans
• Realignment Democrats embraced Civil Rights
  fractured the New Deal coalition, changing nature
  of Southern politics as Southern, Evangelical
  Protestants and Catholics moved towards the
  Republican Party.
• Dealignment The growth of independents (if you
  count independent leaners as independents) shows
  a disintegration of the two political parties.
• Are we on the verge of a seventh party system?

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The Current Party System2006 NES and Exit Polls

• H p.123 (http//www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/re
  sults/states/US/H/00/epolls.0.html)
• Income
• Occupation
• Education
• Region
• Religion
• Race
• Gender

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Where Partisans Stand on the Issues

• H. p.128
• Government spending
• Role of government in providing a good standard
  of living
• Race
• Defense spending
• Abortion
• Ideology

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The Southern Realignment

• For federal offices,
• Bush won all southern states in 2000 (setting
  aside FL) and 2004.
• Reps control a solid majority of Senate and House
  seats.
• State offices (http//www.ncsl.org/statevote/state
  votemaps2006.htm)
• Reps control governors in the Deep South, Dems
  control AR, NC, TN, and VA
• Democrats still retain control of some state
  legislative chambers even in the Deep South, such
  as the AL House and Senate, and the MS House.

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Why Do Democrats Cling to Office in the South?

• Some whites are still Democrats. To win,
  Democrats need about 1/3 of the white vote plus
  all the black vote.
• State parties and candidates can be different
  than national parties and candidates. When
  Republican candidates are too conservative,
  conservative Democrats can win.
• Still an uphill climb for Democrats.