Ch.6 Political Parties Flashcards by Theresa Cahill

Straight ticket

Vote an entire party’s candidates

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Party functions

Organize competition 
Unify electorate
Organize govt
Linkage institution
Loyal opposition

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Split ticket

Vote for candidates of different parties

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Big tent

Parties try to attract more voters by adopting ideas to keep extreme but not attract as extreme voters

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Linkage institution

Link people and candidates; people have impact on govt

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Honeymoon period

Parties are nice to each other following election for a few weeks

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The mandate

Narrower victory leads to more opposition because minority is larger and has a better chance of getting compromises
Bigger if majority party has both houses or pres wins by a lot

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Caucus

Early
Iowa still has caucus
Meeting of party leaders to decide candidates, not democratic, corrupt able

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Convention

Came after caucuses

More democratic, speeches, candidates

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Primary

What we currently have
Setup by parties
Most states use; open v closed, blanket

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Open primary

Crossover voting

Can vote for whichever party you want

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Closed primary

Have to register with party to vote

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Blanket primary

Anyone can vote for anyone

Ruled unconstitutional due to right of association for parties

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White primaries

South during civil rights
Because parties are private
Unconstitutional

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2 party v multi party

Multi party: at large proportional-60% of votes=60% of seats; encourages many parties
2 party: single member-winner take all, if not in the two major parties, you have no shot
Ballot access- hard to get on the ballot

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Co opting

If a member of major party takes minor party’s issues so it’s kind of good because third party has issues noticed but fewer 3rd party get votes since they have the same issue

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3rd parties

Issue based
More lasting
Centered in candidates
Can skew elections by taking votes from major party

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How to fix a 2 party system

Plurality
Double ballot majority and proportionality
Double ballot majority sets prerequisite that you must have a majority of voters vote for an election to be proper

Party systems began

1824
Fed v Antifed
Not parties by today's standards
Fed v Dem-Rep
Brits=fed and France=dem rep

2nd large change in elections

1828-1856
Whigs v democrats
NEWSPAPERS
Jackson-spoils system

1840 election

First wide spread use of primaries

Party based

3rd party system

1856- dem v rep (not ideologically the same)

1860- dem split➡️rep victory

Union party

19th century party formed by remnants of the democrat and republican parties

Radical republicans

Faction of rep party but bigger on certain things

Ex: the tea party

Solid south

Post civil war voted democratic because Lincoln was republican

4th party system

Progressive era | Reps➡️business interests

5th party system

New deal-dem. spent way out of depression

6th party system

????? 1980s moral majority v social equality Moral majority= republican; idea thy foxy is there also to legislate a moral code

Critical elections

1800, 1828, 1860, 1896, 1932

Converting realignment

No drastic change of party in power but party in powers hold is solidified

Modern parties

``` Divided govt Gerrymandering Campaign finance Negative ads Spoils system ```

Divided govt

``` Occurs twice as often as unified govt Not necessarily bad Affects the mandate of each sector Variations in size of majority One party controls White House and the other controls both house of congress ```

Divided govt cycle

Divided govt➡️partisanship➡️extremism⬇️ | ⬆️Extreme cand⬅️Less turnout ⬅️Cynical

Parties in the branches | Congress

Majority gets "const. Offices" aka speaker of the house and pro temp Also get committee chairs and majority on the committees Also get cloture(senate) Cloture only takes 51 votes

Parties in the branches | Executive

Cabinet | President becomes party leader

Parties in branches judicial

Appointment process | Judges not identified by party but not going to nominate someone who us very in line with opposing party ideals

Party identification

Strong democrat➡️weak democrat➡️ independent leaning democratic➡️ true independents ➡️republican leaning independents ➡️ weak republicans ➡️ republicans

Party identification | What most people say and what they do

Most Americans say they're independent or independent leaning republican or democrat But people actually vote democratic or republican

Dealignment

People are moving away from democrat and republican parties People say this but vote still goes to rep and dem Our system doesn't allow people to act on it

Party levels

Party regulars-base, work in campaigns Candidate activists-follow the person Issue activists-follow the issue

Money

Hard money and soft money Soft money-supposed to be used for "party building" but both parties are guilty of using it for other things BCRA got rid of soft money which caused parties to scale back on media spending

Party independent expenditures

Battle ground states-don't focus on safe seats Democrats have often raised and spent more money than republicans Independent expenditure $>soft money

Party system bad

Not contrasting enough on policy--no choices | Too far apart on policy--no middle ground (current problem)

Control?

Media-little but of control Candidate>party- candidate becomes star of the show "Splinter groups" - Tea Party