AP Government Chapter 9

Reading Log
Nathan Weisskopf
9.1 - What is a Party?
Pages 189 - 191
Questions / Observations:
“If political parties are, at a surface level at
least, extremely simple. Why is there A) a
lack of parties in the United States, and B) a
huge amount of polarization for a simple
process?”
Terms / Names / Events:
● Political Party - A group that seeks to
elect candidates to public office.
9.2 - The Rise and Decline of the
Political Party
Pages 191 - 196
Summary:
A political party is simply a group that seeks
to elect candidates to public office (at its core
at least)
However, many analyze political parties as
more, mainly consisting of three parts:
● (An) organization that recruits and
campaigns for candidates
● (A) label in the minds of voters
● (A) set of leaders who try to organize
and control the legislative and
executive branches of government.
Overall, parties have tended to be weaker in
American politics than that of many other
developed nations. This is partially intentional
however, as part of the reason is the
separation of, and decentralization of powers.
Summary:
Five Phases of Political Parties

Questions / Observations:
“How many times have the names of the
major parties ‘swapped’ and why? Why have
there been so many massive shifts in the
political system without necessarily having
conflict?”
“Why have these massive shifts not made us
less stable? Usually these kinds of massive
changes can be extremely uprooting?.
Terms / Names / Events:
● Mugwumps / Progressives -
Republican Party faction of the 1890s
to the 1910s, comprising reformers
who opposed patronage.
● Critical / Realignment Periods - A
period when a major, lasting shift
occurs in the popular coalition
supporting one or both parties.
9.3 - The Functions of Political
Parties
Pages 196 - 201
Questions / Observations:
(1) Founding - 1820s - Basics
implementation, initial emergence of
the party system.
(2) 1820s - Civil War (Emergence of the
stable two party system) - Elections
decided between the two parties,
stable system of elections and
candidates coming to power
(3) Civil War - 1930s (Parties had a
more developed structure, and one
party held lots of power post war) -
Party structure became more
developed. Heavy support for
Republicans, as Democrats were
initially diminished in their power post-
Civil War
(4) 1930s - 1960s (Party reform and
political system alteration) - New
Deal and heavy support for pro-
working-class candidates.
(5) 1960s - Today (Period of
polarization and resurgence) -
Modern day politics, parties very
different from one another.
Summary:
Political Parties, as stated, serve the main
goal of getting candidates elected that will
protect or serve their interests. However, this
is quite a long process, and has many steps:
“Are ‘Super-Delegates’ fair and do they make
the nomination process more accurate or
fair? If not, why are they a part of the
process?”
“Why would you restrict primary voters to your
own party when regardless of party affiliation
people can vote for whoever they want in the
general election? (this may actually decrease
the amount of people partaking in your party
even if they have a stake. For example, a left-
leaning independent not being allowed to vote
for a democratic candidate.)
Terms / Names / Events:
● Primary Elections - An election held
to determine the nominee from a
particular party.
● Closed Primary - A primary election
where only registered party members
may vote for the party’s nominee.
● Open Primary - A primary election
where all voters (regardless of party
membership) may vote for the party’s
nominee.
● Super-Delegates - Party leaders and
elected officials who become
delegates to the national convention
without having to run in primaries or
caucuses.
● Invisible Primary - Process by which
candidates try to attract the support of
key party leaders before an election
begins.
● National Convention - A meeting of
party delegates held every four years,
which nominates the party’s candidate
for president.
● National Committee - Delegates who
run party affairs between national
conventions.
● Congressional Campaign
Committee - A party committee in
Congress that provides funds to
members and would be members
● National Chair - Day to day party
manager elected by the national
committee.
● Recruiting Candidates - Convincing
individuals to run as members of the
party. This is often one of the hardest
steps, some people might not want
the responsibility while others may
jump at the opportunity.
● Nominating Candidates - Once a
party has enough candidates running,
they must choose which ones they will
actually be putting forward in an
election.
○ Nomination Via Convention -
Conventions are usually only
used by the parties to select
their candidates for president,
and they use delegates from
all states who represent the
will of their state, as well as
super-delegates to decide who
becomes the presidential
nominee.
● Running - Once a candidate has
been selected, it is the party's job to
help them through the final rounds of
winning over the public. Once the
election is over, and if the candidate
has won, the party will now have a
member in government who they can
count on (for the most part) to uphold
their beliefs.
9.4 - Parties as Organizations
Pages 201 - 203
Questions / Observations:
“How do the many different regional parties
and national parties effectively coordinate in a
way that doesn’t cause internal fracturing?”
“Wouldn’t it be more effective to either have a
top-down system where the national party
has at least some pull in local affairs, similar
to the United States government?”
Terms / Names / Events:
9.5 - Parties in the Electorate:
Partisanship
Pages 203 - 206
Questions / Observations:
“How much does partisanship correlate to
political polarization? If it is a strong
correlation, why is partisanship not
discouraged?”
Terms / Names / Events:
● Political Machine - A party
Summary:
Parties are actually decentralized, and the
state level parties do not necessarily take any
direct orders from the national level officials
and conventions.
● National Parties - Main responsibility
is to call the national conventions for
selecting president. Aside from this,
the national party usually represents
the party in the media and raises
money for candidates.
● State and Local Parties - Local
parties are extremely numerous and
diverse, even within the same political
party. Due to their nature of having
ultimate control, some local parties
are very strong, while others are
mismanaged or lack members and
therefore are very weak. Earlier in
time, state and local parties often had
to use tangible incentives to
encourage people to join, also called
political machines.
Partisanship is most easily understood as a
person’s loyalty to their party. It is heavily
influenced by factors such as family and
upbringing, but to a smaller extent by
schooling and friends.
For much of the 20th Century, Democrats
held a heavy advantage in people identifying
themselves as Democrats, but this began to
shift and the gap became more narrow after
national security crises like 9/11.
Independents also have shrunk, going from
 organization that recruits members by
dispensing patronage.
● Partisan Identification - A voter’s
long-term, stable attachment to one of
the political parties.
● Partisanship - Another name for
partisan identity.
9.6 - The Two-Party System
Pages 206 - 209
Questions / Observations:
Terms / Names / Events:
● Two-Party-System - An electoral
system with two dominant parties that
compete in national elections.
● Plurality System - An electoral
system in which the winner is the
person who gets the most votes, even
if he or she does not receive a
majority; used in almost all American
elections.
the high 20s of the percentage of the
electorate to the low 10s in today’s terms.
Many political scientists have found this is
more so due to how people label themselves,
rather than how the individuals actually vote,
as many so called “Independents” had very
partisan leanings and beliefs.
Two party systems are relatively rare around
the world, especially in the case of
developed, industrialized countries. The
United States is unique in that for an
extremely long time, the political system has
been mainly represented by only two parties.
Part of the reason the two-party system likely
formed was due to the plurality system, or
the idea that the one with the most votes, not
necessarily the majority is the winner, and in
the US, winner takes all. Electoral college
plays a large role in this idea, especially on
the state level.
An important realization however, is that other
parties do exist in the two party system, they
just rarely have enough support to win
elections. However, third parties play the role
in that, the issues they address, if they
receive enough support, may become part of
one of the major two parties’ platforms in
order to win over the supporters of that third
party. Essentially, they can influence policies
and the political system, without necessarily
needing to win elections.