Transcript Slide 1

And now,
ladies and
gentlemen,
two highly
intelligent
experts on
political
parties will
guide you
through this
chapter.
And here
they are!!!
To start, I need a fellow nerd,
er, uh, smart person to tell me
what political parties are and
what they do.
Zzzzzzz, huh? Uh, oh,
wow! OK, political parties
are organizations that try to
win control of government
by electing people to office
who carry the party label.
In representative democracies
parties recruit candidates for
public office, run their
candidates in competitive
elections, and try to organize
and coordinate the activities of
government officials under party
banners and programs.
At this time, please form into
informal groups. Go over the
list of things that political
parties can do to make
popular sovereignty and
political equality possible and
come up with specific
examples for each.
To make popular sovereignty and political
equality, parties try to:
Keep elected officials responsive
Stimulate political interest
Ensure accountability
Help people make sense of
complexity in issues
But do
Make government work
they?
What a total fox!!!
Miss Becky Nerd, I think you
have a question for the class.
He is such a hottie!
That’s right! Who can tell
us what the difference is
between a one-party system
and a two party system?
Hey, Jay Leno here. I love this
topic and I know the answer to
your question! One party: a
single political party controls
the government and clearly
dominates political activity,
such as China today.
And two party is a
system, like in the
US, dominated by
two parties.
I wish we looked as
good together as that
couple on the first slide.
So what’s a multiparty
system?
Honey, it’s a political system in which
several parties try to gain control of the
government. Each party’s
representation in the legislature usually
is proportional—it depends on the
percentage of votes the party receives
in an election.
That’s right, Monica, and
sometimes the leading party
gets a plurality--much less than
50% of the vote, but still the
most votes--leading to coalition
governments—governments
made up of several different
parties.
And as Israel, Italy and
other multiparty countries
have found, coalition
governments are rarely
successful.
And in our two party system,
we have elections that are
organized on a winner-takeall, single-member-district
basis. That’s why some
political scientists use a
horseracing analogy: first
past the post to describe our
elections.
As the text notes, the two-party
outcome of plurality elections in
single member district voting
systems is called Duverger’s
Law. In that type of election,
failure to come in first leaves a
party with no representation.
Thus, it discourages minorparty efforts. Indeed, a vote for
a candidate from a minor party
is a wasted vote.
And I’m former
Senator James
Jeffords, a
former
Republican,
from Vermont
who became an
independent.
As
independents,
we are not
associated with
any political
party.
Hello. I’m
Senator Joe
Lieberman, a
former
Democrat,
now an
Independent
from
Connecticut.
Howdy, I’m H. Ross
Perot from the great
state of Texas. In 1992 I
formed a 3d Party, the
Reform Party. A third
party—or minor party—is
any political party,
besides the two
dominant ones, that
seeks to directly
participate in the
government.
Which one of y’all can tell me
what restrictions there are on
minor parties in the U. S. of A?
Considerable number of signatures
required to get on ballot
Requirements vary state-to-state
Numerous different election laws in each state
Must get 5% of the popular vote in a general
election to be eligible for public funding, which
is not provided until after the election.
Your text discusses types of
minor parties. Let’s now go
over each. What’s a protest
party?
Mr. Leno, I am the late William
Jennings Bryan, a member of a
protest party, the Populist Party.
We grew out of protests against
railroads, banks, and government
policies in the 1890s.
I’m California Green Party
leader, Peter Camejo. I
represent an ideological party,
the Green Party. What is an
ideological party?
I’d rather be
fishing
An ideological party is a party
whose basic political views
differ from those of the
majority of the population.
Single-Issue parties are essentially advocacy
groups (Prohibition Party)
Bully, I formed a splinter party.
Who can tell me what that is?
Mr. President,
you formed the
Progressive, or
Bull Moose,
Party, when
you felt the
Republican
Party no longer
addressed
your concerns.
Mustangs, I’m former
Vice President Al Gore.
Third parties can change
the outcome of elections.
For example, H. Ross
Perot’s performance
helped me be elected
vice president in 1992,
but Ralph Nader’s
performance in Florida
helped George Bush
defeat me for president
in 2000.
U. S. Political History: The Six Party Systems
Federalists vs. Democratic-Republicans
Democrats vs. Whigs
Republicans vs. Democrats, 1861-1896*
Republican Dominance, 1894-1932*
New Deal & Democratic Dominance*
De-Alignment and Divided Government
Parties at war (hyperpartisanship)
*Realignment period included
Realignment—a process, or period, when one
party replaces the other as dominant
*1860-1868
*1894-1900
*1932-1936
Dealignment—a gradual reduction in the
dominance of one party without another party
supplanting it
Divided government: one party—presidency;
other party—one or both houses of Congress
The Republican Party
The Democratic Party
The Reform Party,
formerly led by
H. Ross Perot
The Peace and Freedom Party—
very left wing (liberal)
The Green
Party
The American Independent Party
The Libertarian Party
Let’s check them all
Let’s look at
California
I say, Mustang seniors, I am
David Cameron, Prime Minister
of the United Kingdom.
American parties tend to be
structured differently than those
in the UK or other nations. How
so? Jolly!
Other countries: parties are hierarchically
structured, led by full-time party professionals,
and are traditionally committed to a set of
ideological principles. They tend to have
clearly defined membership requirements,
centralized control over party nominations and
electoral financing, and disciplinary authority
over elected party members. Major U. S.
parties: none of the above
All right, now, let’s talk
Republicans and Democrats.
They tend to be loose
collections of local and state
parties, campaign
committees, candidates and
office holders.
That is right, President Reagan.
The Democrats and Republicans
have both state and national
organizations, but party leaders
cannot issue orders.
Thanks Presidents Reagan
and Johnson. While the
Democrats and Republicans
have strong national party
organizations, many
Americans, although belonging
to parties, do not strongly
identify with those parties.
Not that
type of
party,
Tommy.
Wow! Did someone say
party???
In fact, as I told you
once before, among
the public, many
people are swing
voters—they
change the party
they vote for from
election to election.
In 1992 this
situation was called
the “soccer mom”
vote—young to
middle-age women
who voted for Bill
Clinton because he
appealed to them
as a person.
Right you are, Miss Becky; still
each party has a set of core
supporters—some call them
the party base—which the party
can count on for votes,
campaign contributions, and
activists.
Republican supporters, like
me, are strongest among white
folks in the South and Rocky
Mountain West.
And, Chris, Democratic supporters,
like me, are strongest among African
Americans, Jews, non-Cuban
Hispanics, people with secular
beliefs, the intelligentsia, union
households, and, of course, liberals.
We tend to live in the Northeast and
on the West Coast.
Gotta love those hippie,
liberal Democrats,
especially the ones who
can’t remember the
1960s! Go San
Francisco and HaightAshbury!!!
Chris, Thomas, and Miss
Becky, increasingly in recent
years, both major parties
have tried to win elections by
first mobilizing you core
supporters—the process is
called “rallying the base”.
They focus on issues and
symbolic gestures that bring
core supporters to the polls.
Then they try to win a
majority among those voters
not automatically predisposed
to one party or the other in
the general election.
As such, Jay, we have learned that in
primary elections, when candidates vie
for their party’s nomination, Democrats
must appeal to the more liberal
members of their party and
Republicans must appeal to the more
conservative members of their party.
That’s why I, Richard Nixon, used to tell
people to run as far to the right as
possible in the primaries and then run
in the center during the campaign for
the general election.
The Nixon
Maxim
Thanks, President Nixon. Here are
two good charts from our textbook
that show the organization of
political parties. How do these show
that organizations are candidatecentered?
The various elements of both parties are
relatively independent from one another
Act based on shared interests, sentiment,
ideology, and the desire to win elections
Official party organizations do not control the
nomination of candidates running under a
party label, or the flow of money that funds
campaigns, or the behavior of officeholders
Another thing parties do is
hold party nominating
conventions every 4 years
to formally nominate
candidates for president
and vice president. The
conventions also develop
and present to the people
party platforms—official
statements of party policy.
That’s true, Governor
Schwarzenegger, but remember
that party platforms are often
huge and vague documents, and
hardly anyone reads them. The
reason why is because anything
specific and short might give
people a reason to vote
AGAINST the party. And
nominees do not have to adhere
to the platforms—so really they
are nothing but pro forma
documents.
Both American parties have
mascots: Republicans use the
elephant for their mascot and the
Democrats use the donkey for
their mascot.
At the national level
there are party
chairpersons. I’m
Reince Priebus, the
Republican chair, and
that’s Debbie
Wasserman Schulz, the
Democratic chair.
Reince, as party chairs, you and
I, assisted by our staffs, really run
the business of our respective
national committees. But you
have more power than I do,
because the president, our
party’s actual leader, is a
Democrat.
The functions of
national party
organizations:
•Nominate the national
ticket
•Attempt to unify the
party’s diverse factions
•Adopt the party platform
•Showcase past and future party leaders
•Attack the opposition party
•Use the free television time to appeal for mass
support; do the same on the party’s website
•Raise money for candidates
Students, Congressman Jeff
Denham, from California’s 19th
District, here. Don’t forget that
there are 4 congressional
campaign committees: GOP
House, Democratic House, GOP
Senate, and Democratic Senate;
they are highly organized and
well funded. They do a lot to
help congressional candidates
and incumbents in their
campaigns.
Also, don’t forget that the
parties, or candidates from
those parties, align with
certain interest and advocacy
groups—sometimes called
Super Pacs. The main effect
of the rise of advocacy
groups in recent years has
been to push the parties and
their candidates into more
ideological and partisan
directions.
Back to us. So which one of
you is going to define the term
ideology?
As governor I can say it is a coherently organized
set of beliefs about the fundamental nature of good
society and the role government ought to play in
achieving it.
Ok, I understand ideology. But
why have our country’s two major
parties tended to tone down
matters of ideology over the
years?
Mr. Leno, sir, it’s because with
the winner-take-all, singlemember-district system, you
have to tone down ideology and
rhetoric to attract the large
numbers of people in the political
center—the Nixon maxim.
Now, who out there in the class
can tell me what each party
traditionally stands for?
I can’t wait for tonight’s
date—we’re going to study
chemistry, calculus and
physics!! What fun!!!
Hey Hottie!!! Let’s do some
brainstorming with the
students.
Ohhh Kay!! Let’s list some of
the ideas behind the
Democratic Party.
Democrats stress
opportunity, responsibility, freedom, peace and
community. They are committed to improving
education, guaranteeing economic security for
families, fighting crime and strengthening
national security. Many are on the liberal side
of the political spectrum, meaning they are
pro-choice, and for environmental protection,
big government, higher taxes & social programs.
Let’s now list some of the
ideas behind the
Republican Party.
Republicans tend to
be on the right side of the
political spectrum. Many
are pro-life, against
unlimited affirmative action,
pro-business, against same
gender marriages, and
believe in smaller government, crime prevention through punishment,
and having a strong military.
Remember, Democrats, as a
rule, are ideologically more
diverse than Republicans. But
both parties accommodate all
kinds of people. There are
conservative Democrats and
liberal Republicans. There are
rich Democrats and poor
Republicans; AfricanAmericans, Jews, Catholics,
and Hispanics are represented
in both parties.
Also, and I’m a good
example of this point, both
the Democratic and
Republican parties are really
moderate in their policies
and leadership.
Conservative and liberal
extremists tend to be in other
splinter parties.
Each party also employs
professional political
strategists whose job it is
to plan strategies to win
elections. Two of the more
famous strategists are
married to each other: Mary
Matilin is a major Republican
Party strategist and James
Carville is a major
Democratic Party strategist.
The parties are
also strong in
Congress.
Members, such as
Senator Diane
Feinstein (D, CA)
and John Warner
(R, VA) usually
vote with their party on most issues. All
key leaders are members of the majority
party—the party that has won the most
seats.
Also, the staffs of Members of
Congress are very partisan;
they generally have to be loyal
members of the
Representative’s or Senator’s
party to get a job on that
person’s staff.
Also, the staffs of all congressional
committees are very partisan—there
is a Republican staff and a
Democratic staff for each committee.
What do Greenberg and Page
say about divisions within
parties?
Despite apparent party cohesion
today, there still are important
disagreements within parties. There
is NOT perfect unity.
Democrats: liberal wing and a centrist wing
Republicans: centrist wing and conservative wing,
not best personified in the Tea Party
Lieutenant Governor Gavin
Newsome here. What
conditions have been in place
when the
U. S. has had unified
government? How about
gridlock?
Lt. Governor Newsome,
I’d love to have unified
government right now—
it means that one party,
in my case the
Democrats, would
control both houses of
Congress and the
presidency. My
predecessor was the last
president to have that.
What we have now is
gridlock—nothing seems
to get done.
What a total fox!!!
Miss Becky Nerd, this has been
such an interesting discussion.
Do you have another question
for these students.
He is such a hottie!
I sure do, Pete Nerd.
Who can tell us the definition
of the term electorate?
That’s
great,
honey.
Who can
tell me the
key points
our authors
make about
the
electorate?
Elementary,
you beautiful
woman, you.
Electorate:
the body of
people
entitled to
vote.
Parties provide mental cues or images in the
minds of voters, creating party identification
Political ID helps determine people’s political
attitudes on a wide range of issues.
Party identity is a powerful shaper of one’s
political identity
Party labels help organize the way people
think about issues and guide them in voting
This thinking plays a large role in which party
controls the presidency
I’m an active partisan—I vote
and I am engaged in other party,
candidate, and party-support
activities. I contribute to
campaigns, attend campaign
meetings, put bumper stickers on
my car, and do other stuff like
that.
Yeah, Chris. But, I’m a leaner—an
independent who leans slightly toward one
party. For me, it’s the Democrats (or any
candidate that likes the Giants.) You know,
the number of people who say they are
independents, including leaners, has
rapidly increased.
Only, Jay, that I hope the
text’s authors are wrong about
this being the 7th party era—if
the parties are indeed at war,
gridlock may continue and that
is never good.
Mr. President,
that was a
quick tutorial on
U. S. political
parties.
Anything you’d
like to add?