Having read the chapter, the students should be able to do each of the following:
Describe the role of political parties in democratic political systems.
Trace the evolution of the American two-party system and discuss the dynamics of realigning or critical elections.
Discuss the role and nature of minor parties in American politics.
Explain the endurance of the two-party system and describe the obstacles inherent in the American electoral system preventing minor parties from successfully competing for governing power.
Compare and contrast the American two-party system and the more common multiparty system with regard to popular representation and accountability. Discuss the influence of each system on coalition building and public policy formulation.
Offer reasons for the organizational weakness of American political parties and the decline in their influence as compared to the powerful role of parties in European politics.
Describe the effects of the decline of parties and candidate-centered campaigns on popular influence on government, and list other methods through which segments of the public exert control over candidate nomination, election, and policy implementation.
Discuss the role played by parties, money, and media in today's candidate-centered campaigns.
Political parties serve to link the general public with its elected leaders and to organize political conflict. In the United States, this linkage is provided by a two-party system; only the Democratic and Republican parties have any chance of winning numeric control of government. The first political parties were organized by Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson and later evolved through Andrew Jackson's grass-roots framework and then Abraham Lincoln's Republican Party emerged. Since that time, the Democrats and Republicans have monopolized the system, alternating through victory and defeat.
Most other democracies have a multiparty system. The fact that the United States has only two major parties is explained by several factors: an electoral system—characterized by single-member districts—that makes it difficult for third parties to compete for power, each party's willingness to accept political leaders of differing views, and a political culture that stresses compromise and negotiation rather than ideological rigidity. America's two major parties are also maintained by laws and customs that support their domination of elections. Minor political parties (there have been more than a thousand in the nation's history) have mainly been short-lived, although they have been responsible for raising issues that have been neglected by major parties. Minor parties can be classified as single-issue (e.g., the Prohibition Party), ideological (e.g., the Libertarians), reform (e.g., the Progressive Party), and factional (e.g., Theodore Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party in 1912).
Realignment occurs when new and powerful issues emerge and disrupt the normal pattern of party politics. Realigning, or critical elections, offer voters the opportunity to have a large and lasting impact on national public policy. In responding to these issues and then by endorsing the actions of the party that takes power, the electorate helps to establish a new governing philosophy and its associated policies. Realignment is maintained through the development of loyalties among first-time voters to the new governing party and its policies. According to the author, realignments have occurred around the time of the Civil War, during the 1890s, and the Great Depression of the 1930s. There has not been a traditional realignment election since 1932; however, voting patterns shifted significantly though gradually in the second half of the twentieth century.
Because the United States has only two major political parties, they normally tend to avoid controversial or extreme political positions. Party leaders typically pursue moderate and somewhat overlapping policies. Their appeals are designed to win the support of a diverse electorate with moderate opinions. This form of party competition is reflected in the Democratic and Republican coalitions. Although the two parties' coalitions are not identical, they do overlap significantly; each party includes large numbers of individuals who represent nearly every significant interest in society. Democrats have traditionally identified with the underdogs of society while the GOP is usually linked to wealthier citizens and big business. Nonetheless, the Democratic and Republican parties sometimes do offer sharply contrasting policy alternatives, particularly in times of political unrest. In recent years, differences have revolved around the degree of governmental involvement in policy, i.e., higher levels of federal spending versus power being decentralized back to the states. It is at such times that the public has its best opportunity to make a decisive difference through its vote.
America's political parties are relatively weak organizations. They lack control over nominations, elections, and platforms. Candidates can bypass the party organization and win nomination through primary elections. Individual candidates control most of the organization and money necessary to win elections and run largely on personal platforms.
Primary elections are a major reason for the organizational weakness of America's parties. Once the parties lost their hold on the nominating process, they became subordinate to candidates. More generally, the political parties have been undermined by election reforms, some of which were intended to weaken the parties and others have unintentionally done so. Recently, the state and national party organizations have expanded their capacity to provide candidates with modern campaign services and are again playing a prominent role in election campaigns. Nevertheless, party organizations at all levels have few ways of controlling the candidates who run under their banner. They assist candidates with campaign technology, workers, and funds, but cannot compel candidates' loyalty to organizational goals.
America's parties are decentralized, fragmented organizations. The relationship among local, state, and national party organizations is marked by paths of common interest rather than lines of authority. The national party organization does not control the policies and activities of the state organizations, and they in turn do not control local organizations. The fragmentation of parties prevents them from acting as cohesive national organizations. Traditionally, the local organizations have controlled most of the party's workforce because most elections are contested at the local level. Local parties, however, vary significantly in their vitality.
American political campaigns, particularly those for higher-level office, are candidate-centered. Most candidates are self-starters who become adept at the election game. They spend much of their time raising campaign funds, and they build their personal organizations around hired guns: pollsters, media producers, and election consultants. Strategy and image-making are key components of the modern campaign, as is televised political advertising, which accounts for roughly half of all spending in presidential and congressional races.
