POLS 207 Chapter 7

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Political Parties

Federalists were first political party
Jeffersonian Republicans were second; supposedly formed roots of Democratic Party

legislative organization: banding together (in office) to pass laws; it's easier to defeat than pass, so legislatures must organize to pass bills
electoral organization: banding together to appeal to voters and get candidate elected

History of Parties

Ratify constitution: Federalists v. Anti-Federalists
Civil War: Democrats in South; Republicans in North
[Urban] Machine Politics: Urban machines called themselves "democrats", but weren't affiliated with Party; Ironically, republicans succeeded in cities, but democrats in rural
New Deal (Franklin D. Roosevelt): Changed arenas of parties: Democrats supported New Deal rather than just being from the south
After WWII: mass media shifted attention to national elections; little competition at local level

Political parties have no intention in being competitive, only in winning.

Why Two Parties?

dualism: only two sides of a single issue at a time (good fortune)
winner-take-all: us vs. them mentality (third parties have little chance of winning
primary elections: not present int third parties; so each party's candidate automatically gets straight-ticket votes
party identification: people usually born into political party; third parties have to convert adults
anglo-heritage: something about the Roman Catholic Church

Primary Systems

Development of the primary election system underwent two revisions from the original setup:

legislative caucus: a few elite legislators get together to pick the party's candidate; general public has little say
party conventions: closed to general public; but average party members have a say
primary elections: public has a say; active party members cannot pick candidates.; allows for candidate and party views to conflict

Primary systems:

nonpartisan blanket: (Louisiana) candidates (no party distinction) who win majority in "early election" win office; runoff if neither of top two get majority
top-two system: (Washington) two candidates (may express party preference) who win early election always face-off in general election
closed: voters register party affiliation before voting in primary; decision is public
open: voters choose which party to vote for at time of election; decision is private
mixed: combination of open and closed; used by a plurality of states.

Party Competition

balanced slate

appeal to as many patrons as possible

new-style politics

use mass-media to appeal for party unity

appear trustworthy without taking positions on issues

going negative (mud-slinging) resulted in Bipartisan Reform Act (2002) requiring candidate "approval identity" in all ads

Hagen & Dole — negative campaign backfired resulting in Hagen suing Dole for falsified negative campaigning

Parties were definitely a lot stronger in the past than they are today; also weak compared to other democracies

Impact of Party Control

"great variation, but no consistent patterns"

"democratic control has no effect on policies considered"

"expectation of policy changes with switch in party control is not evident"

competition does not influence public policy

Interest Groups

Little evidence that they actually have an effect (Godwin disagrees)

supposedly no correlations with any public policy

Control

Interest groups can't bribe, but they can make contributions to campaign.
registration required by some states
publicly financed campaigns make interest group contributions look less appealing
~~campaign expenditure limits~~ declared unconstitutional