Transcript Slide 1

Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
To start, I need a fellow nerd,
er, uh, smart person to tell me
what political parties are and
what they do.
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
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?
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
Miss Becky Nerd, I think you
have a question for the class.
That’s right! Who can tell
us what the difference is
between a one-party system
and a two party system?
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
I’m California Green Party
leader, Peter Camejo. I
represent an ideological party,
the Green Party. What is an
ideological party?
An ideological party is a party
whose basic political views
differ from those of the
majority of the population.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
Single-Issue parties are essentially advocacy
groups (Prohibition Party)
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
U. S. Political History: The Seven 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
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
The Republican Party
The Democratic Party
The Reform Party,
formerly led by
H. Ross Perot
The Peace and Freedom Party—
very left wing (liberal)
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
The Green
Party
The American Independent Party
The Libertarian Party
Let’s check them all
Let’s look at
California
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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!
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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???
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
Republican supporters, like
me, are strongest among white
folks in the South and Rocky
Mountain West.
And, Michael, Democratic supporters, like
me and all artists, 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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
Gotta love those hippie,
liberal Democrats,
especially the ones who
can’t remember the
1960s! Go San
Francisco and HaightAshbury!!!
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
Students, Congressman Jeff
Denham, from California’s 10th
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political 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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political 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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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.
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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
Objective: Students explain the key components of American political parties
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, Phil. 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.