I. Political Parties—Here and Abroad
A. Political Parties—are groups that seek to elect candidates to political office by supplying them with a label—a party identification—by which they become known to the public. A political party exists as a label in the minds of voters, as an organization that recruits and campaigns for candidates, and as a set of leaders who try to organize and control the legislative and executive branches of government
1. Political parties abroad—behave slightly differently than in the United States. Political parties in other countries more actively recruit candidates, and would not allow an unauthorized person to call themselves or identify themselves with the party. The parties run the campaigns, not the candidates themselves, and voters in fact vote for the party, rather than for the candidate. In return, elected party members are expected to follow the party line on all issues.
2. Political parties in the United States—like the government structure itself, the party structure in this country is much more decentralized than in Europe.
B. The First Party System
1. Federalists—were an organized faction, originally coalescing around the effort to pass the Constitution. Most Federalists believed in a strong central government—although even this belief there was a range of advocacy, from Alexander Hamilton, who at times advocated for a restoration of a monarchy, to James Madison, who eventually moved closer to Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican movement.
2. Anti-Federalists—were a less organized faction, coalescing around their opposition to passing the Constitution. The passage of the document, of course, effectively ended the reason for this “party,” which then dissolved until the Federalists were perceived to have become too heavy-handed with their critics over a series of relatively minor provocations (including the passage of the Alien and Sedition Act in 1798).
3. Emergence of the Democratic-Republicans—opposition to the Federalist rule coalesced around Thomas Jefferson in the late 1790s. With Jefferson’s narrow victory in the election of 1800, the Federalists were never able to muster a response to the Democratic-Republican victory, and by 1815 or so (after several members had participated in the secessionist Hartford Convention), the party simply faded away. With no opposition party to animate national politics, by 1820 the Democratic-Republican party began to dissolve, as well, and the nation entered the “Era of Good Feelings.”
C. The Second Party System—emerged with the first Andrew Jackson campaign for President, and remained in place until the eve of the Civil War. The Democrats, as they now called themselves, rallied around Jackson, who viewed himself—and was viewed by others—as an advocate for the “common man.” Those who opposed Jackson called themselves Whigs, after the opposition party to the royalist Tories in Great Britain.
1. Ideological divisions—the Democrats and the Whigs were somewhat divided over ideology; Democrats advocated for smaller government and low taxes, while the Whigs advocated government involvement in internal improvements (best exemplified by Henry Clay’s American Plan), and an appropriate level of taxation to achieve that. Positions on these issued crossed sectional lines, and allowed the Democrats and Whigs to remain national parties.
2. Popular Politics—it was during this time period that white universal manhood suffrage occurred, and property qualifications for voting disappeared. To attract voters, parties developed “professional” office holders, engaged in the “spoils system,” and developed the party nominating convention to allow for some local control of the presidential nominating system.
3. Civil War—the emergence of a regional anti-slavery party—the Republicans—spelled the end of the Second Party System. The Republican Party dominated politics in the United States for most of the next 70 years.
D. The Modern Party System—both the Republicans and the Democratic Party emerged from the trials of the Civil War to create the modern party system. While Democrats were competitive in Congressional races soon after the end of the Civil War, Democratic candidates only held the office of the President for 16 years between 1861 and 1933 (two non-consecutive terms for Grover Cleveland, and Woodrow Wilson’s term from 1913-1921). Since the four terms that Franklin Delano Roosevelt served, the campaign for the presidency has been very competitive.
1. Reforms—the monolithic nature of political parties in the modern era has led to attempts at political reform by members of the dominant party who found themselves shut out of the power structure of their party.
a. Progressives—largely Republican (although there were Democrats who identified themselves Progressives, as well) who looked to reform the excesses (or what they perceived as excesses) of modern society.
I. National Party Structure Today
A. National Parties—Both the Republican and Democratic Parties exist at the national, state, and local levels, but control of the parties are much decentralized.
1. National Convention—held every four years to coincide with the presidential election. Besides nominating the party’s candidate for president, these conventions also vote on the party’s “platform”—the programs they party pledges to carry out.
2. National Committee—between convention party affairs are managed by a national committee made up of delegates from each state and territory.
3. Congressional Campaign Committee—in both the House and the Senate campaign committees help members who are running for re-election or would-be members who are running against members of the opposing party.
4. National Chair—a full-time, paid position, and elected to the position by the national committee. Before modern reforms, the chair also helped to decide who among the party faithful would get federal jobs.
5. Party Reforms—beginning in the late 1960s and 1970s, both parties made important internal reforms in their party structure.
a. Republicans—throughout the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and into the 1980s, the Republican Party was seemingly the permanent minority party. In response, they converted the national party into a well-financed, highly staffed organization (assisted by the proliferation of conservative think-tanks) devoted to finding and electing Republicans—especially to Congress. This began to pay dividends by the late 1980s and 1990s.
b. Democrats—While the Republicans worked to identify electable candidates, the Democratic Party, after divisive conventions in both 1964 and 1968, made a series of reforms that removed most of the power to name delegates from local parties, and spent the conventions in the 1970s and 1980s becoming increasingly factionalized.
B. National Conventions—The national committees select the time and the place of the convention, and also set the number of and rules for selecting delegates. Beginning in the early 1970s, primary elections (with some important exceptions for those states holding caucuses) have become the common means of selecting delegates, but often the delegates are apportioned to runners-up candidates, rather than winner-take-all.
II. State and Local Parties
A. Political Machines—a “political machine” is a party organization that recruits its members by the use of tangible incentives—political jobs, an opportunity to get favors from government. At one time, around the turn of the 20th century, many local party organizations were machines. The Progressive movement was animated by what they perceived were the excesses of these political machines, and the reforms they proposed were aimed at limiting the power of these machine politicians.
B. Ideological Parties—while political machines were animated by the need to win elections (in order to dispense favors, and win more elections), ideological parties are fired by their ideological purity. This can mean the creation of so-called “third parties” like the Prohibition Party or the Socialist Party, in the modern era the most influential ideological parties operate inside the two main parties. This is particularly true with the Republican party, where evangelical Christian groups have emerged to control many local Republican parties
C. Solidary Groups—are built among sociability networks (which is different from today’s social networks)—they are roughly akin to bowling leagues and bridge clubs. While they are less prone to ideological splits, they also often do not work very hard for party candidates.
D. Sponsored Parties—Sometimes a relatively strong party organization can be created among volunteers without heavy reliance on money or ideology and without depending entirely on people finding the work fun. This occurs when another organization exists in the community that can create, or at least sponsor, a local party structure.
E. Personal Followings—Because in most areas candidates can no longer count on the backing of a machine, because issue-oriented clubs are limited to upper-level middle-class members and sponsored parties to a few unionized areas, and because solidary groups are not always productive, a person wanting to win an election will usually try to form a personal following.
III. The Two-Party System
A. The Two-Party System and Electoral Law—the winner-take-all nature of most American politics inhibits the success of more than two parties in the American system. In countries with proportional representation (that is, when representatives in a legislature are chosen according to the proportion of all votes they (or their party) actually won. Without actual success now and then, it is difficult for a political party to remain viable.
B. The Two-Party System and Public Opinion—the aversion of most American to political conflict, and the desire for consensus, have helped to limit political participation in the country to two parties at a time.
IV. Nominating a President
A. Are Delegates Representative of the Voters?—Delegates to conventions are party activists, animated be a cause or an attachment to a particular candidate. Since most candidates have ensured their nomination before the convention meets, most delegates are more concerned with the development of the party’s platform—and the party candidates adherence to that platform—than they are concerned with the candidate themselves.
B. Who Votes in Primaries and Caucuses?—Primarily party activists, or people who pay a lot of attention to politics
V. Interest Groups
A. The Proliferation of Interest Groups
B. The Birth of Interest Groups
VI. Kinds of Organizations
A. Institutional Interests
B. Membership Interests
C. The Influence of Staff
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