5.1 - Political Parties

Political parties

What & Why?

•Political Party: A group of persons who seek to control government through the winning of elections and the holding of public office.

•The primary purpose of the political parties is to control government through winning election to public office.

Why are they important in democracy?

• Political parties are essential to democratic government.• They are a vital link between us

(the people) and the government.• Political parties work to end

conflict, like power brokers. They bring conflicting groups together for compromise.

• Soften the impact of extremists at both ends of the political spectrum.

The political spectrum

• On the LEFT we have…

The political Spectrum

• On the RIGHT we have…

A DONKEY & AN ELEPHANT…WHY?

• That’s what each party was labeled in a political

cartoon by Thomas Nast in the late 1800s, it

wasn’t their choice

• Another explanation for the Dems: Andrew

Jackson was being labeled a “Jackass” by his

opponents. He decided to embrace it and began

using the donkey. It was forgotten until Nast

brought it back…

So what do political parties do exactly?

• Nominate Candidates

• Inform and Activate Supporters: Shared responsibility with media &

interest groups.

• Act as “Bonding Agent”: Ensure good performance of its

candidates. Choose candidates that are qualified & posses good

character. If not, they suffer in the next election.

• Governing: Helps legislative & executive work together. Congress

is organized on party lines, which means they conduct business on

partisanship

• Partisanship: Strong support of one’s political party and its

policy standards.

• Act as watchdog: Usually the watchdog is the party who is out of

power. They urge the public to “Throw the rascals out”

democratic national Convention: Nominating obama

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF6vlimutCg

INFORM & ACTIVATE SUPPORTERS

Bonding agent• Political parties nominate/endorse their officials for

public office who are of good character and quality.

• John McCain possessed these characters, but to some in his own Republican Party he wasn’t Republican enough:

Partisanship

Allegiance to a political party

Watchdog

The party out of power

5.2 – Minor Parties• Minor Parties are exactly what they sound

like.

• Minor Parties are political parties without wide vote support• Examples: The United States Pirate

Party, United States Marijuana Party.

Two Party System• Instead, we have a very dominant two

party system in the U.S.

• A two party system is exactly what it sounds like

• A two party system is a political system dominated by two major parties

• We have only two parties because it’s in our history:• Federalists & Anti-Federalists

• Is this good or bad? Or both?

The Electoral System

• Nearly every election held in the U.S. are single member district elections.• Single-Member Districts: contests in

which only one candidate is elected to each office on the ballot

• Winner take all!

• Winner receives a plurality.• Plurality: receiving the largest number of

votes cast for office• This may not mean the majority of all

voters, but just the MOST votes.

American Ideological consensus

• American’s are ideologically homogenous:

• Americans have shared many of the same political

ideals, beliefs, and principles. (Freedom, Opportunity,

etc)

• BUT we’re not all the same. We are pluralistic

society.

• A pluralistic society is a society consisting of several

distinct cultures and groups.

But there is still consensus…

•Consensus is the general agreement

among various groups on

fundamental issues

•We eventually compromise. The

U.S. has been free of long-standing,

bitter disputes based on factors like

economic class, social status,

religious beliefs, or national origin.

Should there be a multi-party system?

• Some argue there should be a multi-party

system.

• A multi-party system is a system in which several

major and many lesser parties exist. They seriously

compete and actually win public office.

This brings in coalitions

• Multi-party systems have positives and

negatives. Because many of the smaller parties

represent one group/belief, how can they win

over a majority of voters?

• They form coalitions. Coalitions are a temporary

alliance of several working groups who come

together to form a working majority and so to

control a government.

• What are the positives/negatives of multi-party

systems?

Then there are one-party systems

• A one-party system is a political system in which

only one party exists

• Sound familiar?

5.4 – The minor parties

• Throughout history and today, there have been

minor parties:

• Remember we talked about the Pirate Party and

the Marijuana Party

• Well there are plenty more:

• Green Party

• Communist Party

• Socialist Party

• Libertarian Party

Types of Minor Parties

• Ideological Parties – Parties based on a particular set of

beliefs – a comprehensive view of social, economic, and

political matters.

• Examples – (Built on Marxist thought) Socialist Party, Libertarian

Party

• The Libertarian Party of today calls for individualism and less

government functions and government.

Single issue parties

• Single Issue Parties – Parties that focus on only one

public-policy matter.

• Examples – (Most single parties have now faded

away) The Free Soil Party (they opposed the spread

of slavery) and The American Party/Know Nothings

(they opposed Irish-Catholic immigration in the

1850s)

• Today, a single issue party is the Right to Life Party.

They oppose abortion.

• These types of parties faded because they fail to

attract enough voters.

Economic protest parties

• Economic Protest Parties – Parties rooted in poor

economic times, lacking a clear ideological base,

dissatisfied with current conditions and

demanding better times.

• Focus their anger on foreign imports, wall

street bankers, etc.

• Examples: The Greenback Party (they tried to

take advantage of agricultural discontent in the

late 1880s by appealing to struggling farmers)

and the Populist Party of the 1890s (they

demanded public ownership of railroads,

telephone companies).

What about the tea party?

• According to our definition, economic protest parties lack a clear ideological base.

• Ideologically, the Tea Party is a faction of the Right Wing.

Splinter Parties

• Splinter Parties – Parties that have split away from

one of the major parties.

• *Examples – President Theodore Roosevelt’s

“Bull Moose” Progressive Party of 1912. George

Wallace’s “American Independent Party”.

• Most splinter parties collapse when it’s

leader/founder step aside.

• In a way…this sounds like the Tea Party of today!

Why are minor parties important?

• A minor party, the “Anti-Masons” first used a

convention to nominate their presidential

candidate. Today, Republicans and Democrats do

the same thing.

• They can play spoiler to one of the two major parties

by taking away some of their votes.

• They take on roles of innovator and critic, more so

than Republicans/Democrat.

• “The major parties are stealing from my platform.”

Party Organization & decentralization?

• Party power is decentralized (power is spread out

between levels of govt & people).

• Reasons for this decentralization:

• Federalism – Because federalism hands over power to

state govt and local govt, there’re millions of elective

offices in the U.S. That’s too many.

• Therefore, the elective offices are decentralized just like our

govt!

• Nominating Process - Democrats nominate Democrats and

Republicans nominate Republicans. Results in: Dems

fighting Dems and Repubs fighting Repubs.

Example: Obama vs. Hillary

National party machinery

• The structure of both major

parties at the national level

has four basic elements.

The first one:

• National Convention – Meets

in the summer of every

presidential election year

• Purpose: Picks the party’s

presidential & vice-

presidential candidates

National committee

• The National Committee – They meet between the

time of each national convention

• Purpose: Mainly works on staging the party’s

national convention every four years

• Politicians from each state make up these

national committees for each party…so these

committees are large but they don’t hold much

power.

National Chairperson

• National Chairperson – Elected to a four

year term by the national committee after

the suggestion of the just nominated

presidential candidate after the

convention

• Purpose: Works to strengthen party

unity, raise money, prepare the party for

the next presidential season

Congressional Campaign committee

• Congressional Campaign Committee –2 years

• Purpose – Work to reelect incumbents and to make

sure that seats given up by retiring party members

remain the party or work to unseat incumbents of

the opposing party

• Members of this committee are chosen by their

colleagues.

• All in all, from smallest to biggest:

• Congressional Campaign Committee National

Committee National Chairperson

The State & Local level

• At state level, party machinery built around a State

central committee

• Headed by: State chairperson.

• Organization is based off congressional districts.

• At local level, party organization varies widely

because there are so many elective offices

• Local level organization involves wards & precincts

• Ward – A unit into which cities are often divided for the

election of city council members

• Precinct – The smallest unit of election administration*

Main components/elements of a party

• The party in the organization - This refers

to the party leaders, the activists, the

donors, etc.

• The party in the electorate - This includes

the party’s voters and loyalists

• The party in the government - This

includes the party’s officeholders in all

levels of the government

The future…

• Political parties have never been very popular

in America

• Many Americans have mixed feelings towards

them

• Increase in the numbers of voters who call

themselves Independents, rather than

Republican/Democrats

• An increase in split ticket voting - Voting for

candidates of different parties for different

offices at the same election

The future…

• Technology has changed the organization and

work of political parties.

• Technology has made candidates less dependent

on party organizations since, in many cases, and

now speak directly to the people.

• The increase of single-issue parties.