POLITICAL PARTIES –

Pros and Cons

 Positive functions of
Parties
•Organize and contest elections
•Organize and run government
•Help voters decide (“Responsible
Party Government – present
distinct alternatives, can be held
accountable for distinct policies)
 Negative functions of Parties
•Confuse responsibility for public policy
•Deliberately sabotage attempts to
govern by the other party
•Make voters more cynical (by negative
advertising, attacks on politicians from
other party, etc.)
• PARTIES IN ELECTORATE – over half of Americans identify selves as
member of D or R party; most Independents are “leaners”
• PARTIES AS ORGANIZATIONS
• PARTIES IN GOVERNMENT
 FIVE PARTY ERAS
• 1. First Party System – 1790-1824
(Jeffersonian)
• 2. Jacksonians v. Whigs - 1828-1856
• 3. Two Republican Eras- (Civil War and
Reconstruction, 1860-1896 Industrial
Republican 1896-1928)
4. New Deal Coalition 1932-1964
• (Class based coalition)-
• Urban dwellers
• Labor unions
• Catholics, Jews
• Poor
• Southerners
• African Americans
5. 1968-Present: Southern Realignment and
Divided Party Government
• Some say rise in DG suggests “dealignment” –
people moving away from clear identification
with one party or another (about 40 percent of
voters call themselves Independents)

• When do party eras end? Critical realignment…

PARTIES – RISING OR DECLINING?
• Three ways to think of parties:

• Parties as organizations
• Parties in the minds of voters
• Parties in government
• Evidence for decline (Fiorina 1980) –
• Compares parties to how they were before the Progressive Era, pre-1880s –
mostly focuses on parties as organizations (and somewhat on parties in
electorate)
• Progressive Reforms such as Australian ballot (allows split ticket voting), civil
service reform, loss of patronage as tool of parties to secure support, campaign
finance laws that limit parties’ fundraising. Loss of control over nominations with
move to system of primaries for presidential and other elections.
• BUT also evidence for resurgence in parties as organizations) - starting in 1960s..
Rs then Ds
• Parties take on new roles (sponsoring issue conferences, mobilizing college
students, direct mail to reach to voters and get donations from them recruit
candidates, polling…) – still relevant, not dead.. (though somewhat eclipsed in
campaign spending by independent groups)
Parties in the minds of voters (in the
electorate)
• Said: More than half of all voters call themselves D or R
• Figure 8.2 – About 40% of voters called themselves Is in 2012.
• BUT very few voters are true Independents,
• Well over half “lean” to one party or another and consistently vote
for that party in elections (study of California in 2010 or so)
• Negativity toward “other” party (not your own) – Using feeling
thermometer, Abramowitz shows people feel much more negatively
to the other party than they used to – though not necessarily more
positive to their “own” party – WHY?
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/10/politico-morning-
consult-poll-229394
Parties in government
• Look at party unity in roll call voting – parties “hanging together” – high in
recent years, few defections (Table 8.2 suggests there are some
defections, but only shows it under George Bush 2001-2008 for less than
10 votes)
• https://www.brookings.edu/interactives/historical-house-ideology-and-pa
rty-unity-35th-113th-congress-1857-2014/
• Compare 2014 Congress to 90th Congress, 1960s
• Why higher party unity today (note it was also high in early 1900s)?
• Few moderates in each party to bridge the gap between increasingly
ideological parties
• Ideological parties are consistent with RESPONSIBLE PARTY GOVERNENT
(RPG) , ideal put forward by American Political Science Association in mid
1900s … See party platforms for evidence of RPG