Transcript Pres.11.2 - Mentor High School

O’Connor and Sabato:
Chapter 11: Political Parties and
Interest Groups
Presentation 11.2: The Structure
and Role of Political Parties
Key Topics
 The basic structure
of American political
parties
 The two-party
system and third
parties
 The roles of political
parties
1. The Basic Structure of
American Political Parties
• The decentralized, pyramid nature of
both major political parties
• The independent and autonomous
nature of each component of the parties
• The problem of refining all the interests
of a continent-sized, industrial nationstate into two political parties
Do you know what the ‘big tent’ metaphor means in the context of
American party politics? Ask me!
1a. The Pyramid Structure of
American Parties
National
Convention
&Committees
State central committees
& congressional district
committees
City & county committees & precinct/
ward committees w/ party activists,
volunteers, & party identifiers & voters
1ai. The National Party
• Quadrennial conventions to nominate
presidential and vice presidential
candidates
• Democrats established a governing body
in 1848; GOP in 1856
• The key national party official is the chair
of the DNC/RNC
The chair is selected by the sitting president or newly nominated presidential
candidate, who is give the right to name the chair for at least the duration of
the campaign.
1aii. The National Party
Chair
• The chairperson is often the primary
spokesperson for the party during the
four years in between elections
• Part of the chair’s job is to minimize
factional conflict & negotiate candidate
disputes
• Today, party chairs must spend a great
deal of time on fundraising$
Strict neutrality is generally expected of the chair during the nomination process.
1aiii. The Chair of the DNC:
Tim Kaine
• Governor of Virginia
• Wants to continue
Howard Dean’s “50
State Policy”
• Very business
friendly as governor
Picture courtesy www.democrats.org.
1aiv. RNC Chair
Michael Steele
• First African
American GOP
chairman
• Will serve until 2011
• Former Lt. Gov of
Maryland
Picture courtesy www.rnc.org.
1av. Congressional
Committees
• Each party has House and Senate
committees
• The purpose of those committees is to
devise strategies to help their party
win/maintain control of that institution
• Loosely allied with the DNC/RNC
1b. State and Local Parties
 ‘All politics is local’ (Rep. Tip O’Neil)
 Party strength in the states is often a decisive
determinant of their success in elctions
 Regulation of political parties is left to the
states
 Most party leadership positions are filled at the
state/local level
1bi. County/Precinct Politics
 The smallest unit is the fundamental
building block of both parties
 The leadership provided by
county/precinct chairperson is vital to a
party’s prospects in a given state
 Local party members are key foot
soldiers
1c. Party Identifiers & Voters
 Very few Americans are ‘card carrying’
members of one or the other party
 A person’s support for one or the other
political party is often a function of that
particular person & their value system
1ci. Party & Issues
Democrats Advocate:







Generally liberal policies
Economic intervention
Protection of civil rights
Social safety net
Environmental protection
Multilateral foreign policy
Protection of the working
class
GOP Advocates:
 Generally conservative
policies
 Free market principles
 Lower taxes
 State’s rights
 ‘Family values’
 Unilateral foreign policy
1cii. The Problem of ‘Cross-Cutting’
Issues
 Voters are frequently attracted/repelled
by aspects of both parties
 Catholics often oppose both abortion and
the death penalty
 Many OK voters are conservative
socially but progressive on economic
issues
Many Americans are moderate ideologically and are not driven by a single
issue. Consequently, these voters register as independents & regularly ‘split
their tickets’ in federal elections.
1ciii. Party Identification
 A citizen’s personal attraction to and
support for a political party
 Generally indicated in the tendency to
vote for candidates of that party on a
consistent basis
 ‘Leaners’: people who register
independent but generally favor one
party in their voting preferences
Many Americans are ambivalent about the role of parties in politics, and view
party identification as a convenience rather than a necessity.
1civ. The Institutionalization
of the Two Major Parties
 Most states have restrictive ballot laws (e.g.
require 50,000 signatures to place a third party
on the ballot)
 Campaign finance laws favor the established
parties
 America’s dualistic tradition (favors pro/con
dialogical discourse)
 Leaves American voters with a choice between
Democrats/Republicans most of the time
1cv. Sources of Party
Identification
 The importance of parental partisanship

Political active parents w/ the same partisan
affiliation are likely to produce strong
identifiers
 The role of leaders (e.g. FDR or Reagan)
 Intense social issues (e.g. abortion)
 Class is not an especially strong
indicator of partisan choice in the U.S.
1d. Political Parties in
Comparative Perspective
 Election rules in the U.S. dictate a strong
two-party system
 However, many nations have multi-party
systems
 Nations with proportional representation
schemes favor smaller parties & multiparty politics
2. The Two-Party System
and Third Parties
 The existence of challenges to the two
major parties
 The history of one-party domination in
certain states (e.g. Maine & Utah) and
regions (the South)
 The significance of genuine two-party
competition throughout the country as a
recent development
2a. Third-Party Challenges
 Third parties frequently challenge the
dominance of the two major parties
 The intermittent nature of third-party
challenges
 Election rules and the flexible nature of
the two major parties make it extremely
difficult for a third party to survive
between election cycles
2ai. The Roots of 3rd Party
Challenges
 Sectionalism (e.g. the ‘Dixiecrat’ revolt in 1948)
 Economic protest (e.g. Populists in the late
19th century)
 Specific issues (e.g. Green Party)
 Ideology (e.g. Socialists & Libertarian Parties)
 Charismatic leadership (e.g. Teddy
Roosevelt’s ‘Bull Moose’ Party in 1912)
Ross Perot’s Reform Party was one of the more consequential recent thirdparty challenges. He used his personality and an important issue (the deficit)
to win 19% of the popular vote, probably denying George H.W. Bush reelection.
2b. The ‘Nader Effect’
 Nader’s Green Party candidacy collected
just 2.86 million votes (just over 2 ½% of
the popular vote)
 However, some claim his candidacy cost
Al Gore the election
 In FL, 45,000 of the 97,000 Nader voter
indicated that they would have voted for
Gore in a two-way race, but Gore could
have won if he won TN or WVA
2c. Minor Candidates for Congress:
Three Conditions for Success
1. The existence of an open House seat
2. Instances where a minor party
candidate has previously competed in
the district
3. When partisan competition in the
district is close
3. The Role of Political
Parties in the United States
 Parties channel
conflict & perform
numerous other
essential roles in the
political process
3a. Mobilizing Support and
Gathering Power
 Leaders count on support from their
voters
 Leaders regularly appeal to the public
through the media for support
 Parties create ‘communities of interest’
that facilitate the creation of coalitions
In American party politics, no single interest is large enough to win: parties
help forge coalitions of different interests that otherwise might not cooperate.
3b. A Force for Stability
 Parties are motivated by one primary
factor: winning elections
 In two-party systems, parties serve to
moderate extreme elements
 Parties are drawn to the center, where
most voters are
In systems characterized by proportional voting rules, parties can derive
support from making extreme appeals.
3c. Unity, Linkage,
Accountability
 Parties as the ‘glue’ that
binds a fragmented
system together
 Party identification
provides a common
affiliation that insures
cooperation from
executive and legislative
institutions that are
otherwise natural rivals
Parties can also take credit – and receive blame – for wise or foolish policies.
3d. The Electioneering
Function
 The ceremonial
function of election
 Parties recruitment
of candidates
 The importance of
parties as conduits of
financial support
3di. Hard & Soft Money
 Hard money is
regulated by federal
campaign laws
 Soft money is raised
& spent for ‘partybuilding’ activities,
and is essentially
unregulated
3dii. Party Funding
Escalates
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Dem-Hard
Dem-Soft
GOP-Hard
GOP-Soft
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
Source: The Federal Election Commission
2002
3diii. The Rise of ‘Issue
Advocacy’
 A great deal of soft money goes to hiring
and training staff
 However, some of it goes to advertising
that is not regulated by campaign finance
laws
 As long as an ad does not say ‘support’,
‘vote for’, or ‘vote against,’ it isn’t
regulated
3e. Policy Formulation &
Promotion
 Every four years, the major parties meet
at the national convention to draft their
national party platforms
 Platforms help the party’s distinguish
themselves from their opponents
 Offer insight into what the party will do in
office
Party platforms help voters hold the party as a whole to account for its
successes & failures, and its ability to deliver what it promised.
3ei. Selected Contrasts in
the 2000 Party Platforms
Issue
Democrats
GOP
Taxes
Tax cuts for middleclass families
Capping the top
marginal rate & ending
the ‘death tax’
Abortion
Support a woman’s right Support a human life
to choose
amendment
Social Security
Use prosperity to save
Social Security
Favor personal savings
accounts
Education
Advocate strengthening
public education
Support vouchers
3f. Legislative Organization
 Political parties help to organize the
legislature
 The importance of the caucus &
conference
 The steady growth of party cohesion &
party-line voting (where 80% of each
party votes against the other party’s
proposals)