6.Political Parties Flashcards
Party Organisation - overall
-Reflecting the decentralised federal nature of government in the US, the parties are also decentralised
-Parties became more ideologically cohesive and politics became more partisan resulting in more centralised control
-National parties’ systems to recruit and train state and local party candidate, offering them legal advice, media training, financial advice, analysis of voting trends, national advertising campaigns
-The question of who is the party leader can be somewhat questioned, while Trump was elected President by a nationwide election, he was not elected party leader in an internal party election
National Party Organisations - National Committees
-The only permanent party structure at the national level are the national committees of each party
-Each has a chair who is normally elected by the members of that national committee, but by tradition an incumbent president will recommend the chair of their own national committee
-These national party chairs tend to be anonymous party bureaucrats or former elected officials who are rarely in the public eye
-The national committees raise money, hire staff, and coordinate election strategy for their party’s candidates for local, state, and nation office
National Party Organisations - National Committees - makeup of each party’s
-When looking at the makeup of the national committees, it becomes clear that the national party is nothing more than the coming together of the state parties
-There really is no separate entity known as the national party
-The DNC is made up of the chair and vice-chair of each 50 state Democratic parties + 200 elected members apportioned by state population, and all DNC members are admitted as super-delegates to the Democratic national convention
-The RNC consists of the chair of each state Republican party + 2 committee members from each state, one man and one woman
National Party Organisations - Congressional leadership and committees
At the national level each party also has its congressional leadership as well as committees to oversee elections to each house of Congress
E.g. the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee
National Party Organisations - State and local party organisation
-Everything else to do with political parties is at the state level where there is an enormous variety of organisation, laws, and customs
-Considerable power is vested in state governors and big city mayors
-There are state party committees, headed by the state party chair, as well as state party conventions
-Below that exist the party committees at congressional district, county, city, ward, and even precinct level
Ideological divisions within the two main parties - Influence of caucuses in appointments
-House Freedom Caucus (Republican)
It is the most conservative and furthest-right bloc within the Republican Party
Members of the caucus were at the centre of the movement to force House Speaker John Boehner to resign in September 2015
Paul Ryan announced his willingness to stand to replace Boehner as Speaker only after the Freedom Caucus officially endorsed him in 2015
In March 2017 the House Republican bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act was withdrawn by Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, largely due to the opposition of the House Freedom Caucus which believed that the replacement provisions failed to repeal some elements of the original Affordable Care Act
Ideological divisions within the two main parties - Caucuses meaning the party is divided between itself
-Congressional Progressive Caucus (Democrat)
-The most left-leaning faction of the Democratic Party. believing the government should protect civil rights, alleviate poverty, and expand healthcare
-Currently has almost half of all current Democratic House members
vs
-Blue Dog Coalition
-Blue Dog Coalition remains the most conservative grouping of Democrats in the House, broadly adopting socially liberal and fiscally conservative
-Currently has 15 member of the House
Theories of party decline - Candidate Selection
-The parties have lost control over presidential candidate selection
-Whereas in the late 1960s, presidential candidates were selected by party bosses in smoke-filled rooms, now they are chosen largely by ordinary voters in presidential primaries
-In 2016 both parties struggled to control their presidential candidate selection process
The Democrats struggled in trying to nominate Hillary Clinton due to the unexpectedly strong opposition of Bernie Sanders
The Republican hierarchy lost complete control with the hostile takeover by Donald trump
Theories of party decline - Communication with voters
-Parties have lost their traditional function as the communicator between politicians and the voters
-Politicians who wished to communicate with voter would do so through a party rally and voters would be able to communicate back
-Now most politicians communicate mostly through TV and the voters communicate back through opinion polls
Theories of party decline -Emergence of ‘movements’
-The emergence of the Tea Party and Occupy movements shows how now Americans are more prone to joining a ‘movement’ than a traditional party
-These movements then seek to influence the Republican and Democrat parties respectively, Americans therefore seek to influence the parties more from without than from within
-The fact that the Tea Party movement gets its preferred candidates chosen in certain congressional races over the wishes of the Republican Party leadership is another manifestation of the decline of political parties
-The 2016 Trump takeover of the Republican Party can be seen as a movement as the hostile takeover was opposed by many within the Republican leadership, such as both ex-presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush
Theories of party renewal - Theories of party decline were exaggerated
-It is probably the case that the theories of party decline were exaggerated
-Parties may be less important than they used to be but they still play a significant role
-The death of the Republican Party was reported in 1974 following the Watergate affair and Nixon’s resignation, it’s candidate would be back in the White House in just over 6 years
-When all is considered, the two major parties still control the White House, Congress, and the vast majority of state governorships
Theories of party renewal - Nationalisation of campaigns
-Party renewal has been seen in moves towards nationalising electoral campaigns
-This was especially true of the Republican Party in the mid-terms in 1994 where nearly all Republican House candidates supported the Republican campaign of a 10-point policy called the Contract with America
-The Democrats followed suit in the 2006 midterm elections with their ‘Six for 06’ agenda which was accompanied by their retaking of both houses of Congress
Theories of party renewal - Increased partisanship in Congress
-A final pointer towards renewal came with increased levels of partisanship in Congress
3rd parties having very little influence
Libertarian Party, biggest 3rd party
-Had a 100% ballot access (only party other than the two main parties to have this)
-Won almost 2 million votes in 2020 presidential election
-As of the 2022 mid-terms the Libertarians have 0 seats in the Senate, 0 seats in the House, 0 seats in states’ upper chambers, and 1 seats in state’s lower chambers
3rd parties having indirect influence
-In the 2000 election, the Green Party’s presidential candidate Nader got 100,000 votes in Florida
-This almost certainly cost Democrat Al Gore the presidency due to his loss in Florida by just 537 votes
-This was because the left’s vote had been split meaning the least-preferred candidate was elected, inadvertently showing why people shouldn’t vote for 3rd parties
