Political Parties

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Political Parties
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• Political Party a group of people organized to
  influence government through winning elections
  and setting public policy.

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I. Role of Political Parties

• Run Candidates for office.
• Inform voters of the issues.
• Organize the voters.
• Govern.
• Watchdog.

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Running Candidates

• Nominating reduce choices to manageable level?
  Primaries
• Open and closed (CA is a closed primary State)
• Bonding Agent guarantee nominees arent
  criminals and are capable of governing

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Informing Voters

• Create Platforms (issues)
• Often created at national convention (esp. during
  Presidential campaigns) or by party national
  committee (DNC, RNC)
• Campaigning
• Pamphlets, grassroots, speeches, photo-ops
• Fund raising

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Organize Voters

• Party identification
• Registering to vote
• National, State, local organizations

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The political party is organized from the bottom
up
National Party
State Party
Local Party
Grassroots Party in the Electorate
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Party Structure

• 1. Party organization
• 2. Party in the electorate
• 3. Party in government

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• Decentralized and based on federalism
• Presidents party tends to be better organized
  and unified (bully pulpit)
• National (DNC, RNC)
• National convention, national committee, national
  chairperson, Congressional Campaign Committee
  (DCCC, RCCC)
• State and Local
• Set by State and local law/tradition
• Precinct and wards (ward boss)

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Govern

• Government by party
• Negotiate, communicate between branches and
  between national and State
• Partisanship Bi-partisan
• Relatively weak compared to Europe

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Watchdog

• Party in Power
• Party out of power
• Criticizes part in power in attempt to gain power
• Throw the rascals out!
• The Loyal Opposition

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II. Political Party History in the USA . . .
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The USA has had a two-party system throughout its
history third parties occasionally emerge, but
usually, most elected officials come from one of
the two major parties.
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Reasons for Two-Party Dominance

• Historical basis
• Force of tradition
• Electoral system
• Single-member district
• Winner-take-all
• Election law 5 requirement, campaign finance
  laws, primaries, getting on the ballot

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Reasons for Two-Party Dominance

• American Ideological Consensus
• Pluralistic society
• Nation of immigrants
• Un-Americanism

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The First Party System 1796 - 1828
Federalists Democratic-Republicans
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Federalists

• Supported the Constitution.
• Supported the George Washington Administration as
  led by Alexander Hamilton.
• Favored Order over Liberty.

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Democratic-Republicans

• Many had been Anti-Federalists, opponents of the
  Constitution.
• Symbolic leader Thomas Jefferson.
• Ironically, a major leader was James Madison.
  Madison joined because he disliked the policies
  of Hamilton.
• Favored Liberty over Order
• Democrats are one of continuously running
  political parties in the world

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Legitimate Opposition

• Important point Both parties considered
  political parties to be factions and wanted to
  eliminate parties altogether.
• The Democratic-Republicans, however, switched to
  seeing their party as part of the legitimate
  opposition (a group that keeps those in power
  honest) and began to accept political parties as
  a necessary evil.

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Jacksonian Democrats Emerge 1828 - 1860
Democrats v. Whigs
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Jackson and Van Buren

• The Democrats dominated politics by
• Building around populism of Jackson (war hero,
  common man)
• Advocating universal white male suffrage
• Establishing party institutions
• Party as positive good

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After three consecutive presidents from the
Democratic-Republican Party, the Federalists
dissolved -- their successor was the Whig Party.
Meanwhile, under Andrew Jackson, the Democrats
(dropping the Republican name) continued in the
White House.
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The Republican Era 1860 - 1932
Democrats v. Republicans
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The Whigs divided over the issue of slavery a
third party, the Republicans, nominated Abraham
Lincoln, and he was elected President the Civil
War resulted . . .
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• and with the defeat of the South the Republican
  party dominated politics for almost 80 years.
• The Radical Republicans pushed through Radical
  Reconstruction (13, 14, 15 Amendments).
• The Republican Party becomes the party of Civil
  Rights until

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The Compromise of 1877

• Weakened by the issue of continuing
  Reconstruction in the South, the Republican
  candidate Rutherford B. Hayes loses the popular
  vote to Democrat Samuel Tilden but the electoral
  vote was disputed (Florida)
• Hayes makes a deal the Republicans will win the
  election in return for removing Federal troops
  from the South and ending Reconstruction.

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Democratic Re-emergence 1932 - 1968
The New Deal Democrats
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• New Deal Coalition urban workers, southern
  whites, immigrants, Catholics, northern blacks
• Truman (desegregation armed forces 1948)
  Democrats party of civil rights

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The Era of Divided Government 1968 - Present
Democrats v. Republicans
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• Civil Rights Movement splinters New Deal
  Coalition
• Johnson 1964 Civil Rights Act we have lost the
  South for a generation
• Solid South switches to Republicans
• Vietnam further splinters Democrats? divided
  government

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Democrats tend to be liberal, while Republicans
tend to be conservative
Liberal favor the use of governmental power to
promote individual liberties and social progress.
Conservative favors the traditional the status
quo, and the idea that the government should stay
out of the affairs of its citizens.