2. Political parties

Question 1

Why are there no successful third parties in the US?

Answer 1

• US is SMDP system
• parties in power set the rules for debates, appearances on ballots etc
• direct primaries
• major parties absorb new groups

Question 2

What is Duverger’s law?

Answer 2

• simple majority, single ballot system favours 2 parties

- simple majority systems with 2nd ballot and PR favor multi-partism

Question 3

what are the overall trends for dems and GOP regarding ideological blocs?

Answer 3

Republicans = big majority conservative bloc
Dems = increasingly identifying as liberal but have more diverse ideology blocs than the GOP

Question 4

What are the pros of the two party system?

Answer 4

1. mental shortcut: easier to understand vibes of party is choice is simplified
2. easier and smoother leadership change every election. Parties help to make changes in gov leadership more routine and orderly bc they are constants in the election process

Question 5

What are the three interacting and overlapping parts that make up parties?

Answer 5

1. party in the electorate (citizens identifying with a party/partisans/party identifiers)
2. party organisation (inc. party leaders, activists and those who work for candidates)
3. party in government

Question 6

What (3) things do parties do?

Answer 6

1. elect candidates (most goals of parties only achieved through winning elections. lots of resources direct to political races e.g. georgia runoffs)
2. educate citizens (focus on uniting issues and downplaying dividing issues)
3. govern (almost all members of legislatures are one of 2 parties. party politics therefore influences huge amount of policy/legislation. all other factors lead up to this)

Question 7

When was the golden era of politis and how was it defined?

Answer 7

late 1800s/early 1900s

2 parties strong and held sway in local and state govs. could choose candidates, hold keys to gov jobs

Question 8

How did progressive reform in the 20th c change party politics?

Answer 8

• increasingly open primary elections, allowing candidates to largely bypass party leaders in seeking nominations
• gave electorate more power at the expense of the party organisation

Question 9

What 3 things have parties had to respond to?

Answer 9

1. expanding electorate
2. voting rights
3. demographic change

Question 10

What does Daniel Ziblatt argue?

Answer 10

health of conservative parties is critial to wellbeing of democracies

(countries with stronger party organisations can block extremist candidates. democracies decline when conservative parties give way to extremist candidates)

Question 11

What happens when every presidential election cycle is up for grabs?

Answer 11

less incentive to compromise

Question 12

what is the more recent trend in elections regarding competitiveness?

Answer 12

control changes more frequently and majorities are smaller

Question 13

Since 1984 presidential elections have been decided by less than ___ of the vote

Answer 13

10%

Question 14

difference between two parties’ vote share has generally been ___ in recent decades

Answer 14

smaller

Question 15

what is the recent pattern with landslide elections and swing districts?

Answer 15

landslide elections are up

swing districts are down

Question 16

When did incumbency advantage start to be a bigger deal?

Answer 16

1960s-80s

Question 17

Most of the elections since 2006 have been ___ elections

Answer 17

wave

Question 18

Apart from gerrymandering why are districts becoming more homogenous?

Answer 18

people move to places they politically align with especially bc politics has become so much apart of our identity

Question 19

there has been a ___ in party competition in House elections

Answer 19

decline

Question 20

Why does it matter that there is a decline in party competition in House elections?

Answer 20

the needs of disadvantaged citizens are more likely to be ignored bc advantaged citizens have other means to make their voices heard in gov

when an officeholder expects to win reelection easily, they have less incentive to pay close attention to voters’ needs

Question 21

What are the effects of nonpartisan ballots?

Answer 21

• reduce voter turnout (don’t have helpful shortcut of knowing who to vote for)
• minority part gets advantage bc nonpartisan ballots take away the party cue that would remind the majority’s voters to choose the majority party’s candidates
• candidates aren’t held as accountable as partisan elections there are weaker policy links between voters and their legislators

Question 22

Give an example of a minor party impacting public policy?

Answer 22

the minimum wage was advocated for by the socialist party before the Democratic congress passed min wage law in 1930s

Question 23

two examples of third party candidates gaining votes?

Answer 23

Perot and Nader

Question 24

Why so few competitive congressional districts?

Answer 24

• Increased value of incumbency (beginning in the 1960s - 1980s)
• Increased geographical sorting by cultural preferences/political ideology
• Gerrymandering