Chapters 8-9 Flashcards
Political Parties
Organizations that run candidates for political office and coordinate the actions of officials elected under the party banner.
American Political Parties are decentralized, each one a loose network of organizations, groups, and individuals who share a party label, an shared ideology, a political platform, but who are under no obligation to work together.
How do Political Parties Act (3 ways)
- As a political organization: the structure of national, state, and local parties, including party leaders and workers
- As the party in government: made up of the politicians who were elected to office as candidates of the party
- As the party in the electorate: including all citizens who identify with the party
6 Part Systems since 1789
- (1789-1828): Federalists, Democrat-Republican (no one was dominate).
- (1829-1856): Democrats, Whigs.
- (1857-1896): Republicans, Democrats.
- (1897-1932): Republicans.
- (1933-1968): Democrats, Republicans.
- (1969-present): Democrats, Republicans (neither one dominate).
The spoils system and the Party principle
The spoils system: the practice of rewarding party supporters with benefits like federal government positions.
The party principle: the idea that a political party exists as an organization distinct from the elected officials who are the party leaders.
Realignment and cross-cutting in party systems
Realignment: a change in one or more of the factors that define a party system, including the issues that divide supporters and candidates from each party, the nature and function of the party organizations, the composition of the party coalitions, and the specifics of government policy. Realignments typically occur within one or two election cycles, but they can also occur gradually over the course of a decade or longer.
Cross-cutting: a term describing issues that raise disagreements within a party coalition or between political parties about what government should do.
To trigger realignments, issues must raise disagreements within the party coalitions.
Party Organization
Formal organization:
- The National Committee is a party’s principal organization, which is comprised of party representatives from each state.
- State party organizations are composed of representatives at the county, city, and town levels
Other allied groups:
- PACs, 527 organizations, and labor unions and interest groups form a loose network allied with the major parties
- Best understood as a fluid structure rather than a rigid hierarchy
Political action committees (PACs) are interest groups or divisions of interest groups that can raise money to contribute to campaigns or to spend on ads in support of candidates.
Caucuses and Conferences and Polarization
Caucuses and conferences:
- Where co-partisans meet to resolve differences, coordinate strategy, and choose party leaders
- Caucus is for Democrats and conference is for Republicans
- Within the House and Senate, party members work together to find areas of overlap and establish legislative priorities
- Assign party leadership positions
Polarization and ideological diversity:
- Growing ideological differences between the parties
- Parties are composed of lots of ideologies; they are not uniformly liberal or conservative
The word “caucus” can mean two different things. Pay attention to context. When referring to elections, caucus means small states who meet and vote without polls and just separate into groups depending on who they vote for. In terms of elected officials, caucus means Democrats who meet in House or Senate.
The Two Party Footprint in U.S.
In modern American politics, virtually everyone elected to a state or national political office is either a Republican or a Democrat.
Types of Primaries and Caucuses
Primary Election: an election in which voters choose the major-party nominees for political office, who subsequently compete in a general election.
Closed Primary: a primary election system in which only registered party members can vote in their party’s primary.
Nonpartisan Primary: a primary election system in which candidates from both parties are listed on the same primary ballot. Following a nonpartisan primary, the two candidates who receive the most votes in the primary compete in the general election, even if they are from the same party.
Open Primary: a primary election system in which any registered voter can participate in either party’s primary, regardless of the voter’s party affiliation.
Semi-closed primary: a primary election system where voters registered as party members must vote in their party’s primary, but registered independents can vote in either party’s primary.
Caucus Election: a series of local meetings at which registered voters select a particular candidate’s supporters as delegates who will vote for the candidate in a later, state-level convention. Caucuses are used in some states to select delegates to the major parties’ presidential nominating conventions. Some states’ caucuses are open to members of any party, while others are closed.
National parties manage the nomination process for presidential candidates.
Beginning in January of the presidential election year and continuing for six months,
Voters in the primaries and caucuses do not directly elect the party’s candidate. Instead, the number of votes each candidate gets determines the number of his/her supporters who attend the nominating convention as delegates.
The number of delegates as a whole is determined by the national party organizations based on several factors.
The biggest way that national parties help candidates is by contributing to campaigns and by spending money in support of candidates.
Campaign Platforms
Party platform: the list of pledges and promises about what candidates from a party stand for and will fight for if elected.
Candidates are not required to support the party platform and many ignore key provisions of it. For example, Pro-gun Democrats and Pro-choice Republicans.
Parties do three things in government
- Agenda-setting: Which issues will the party will prioritize?
- Coordinating: Parties work together across branches of government
- Providing accountability: Give voters identifiable groups to reward or punish
Functions of American Elections
Selecting representatives. Who holds office?
Influencing policy. What should government do?
Promoting accountability. Has my incumbent done a good job?
Retrospective evaluation: a voter’s judgment of an officeholder’s job performance since the last election.
Two Stages of American Elections
- Primary election: Which candidates get the party’s nomination?
Open primary
Semi-closed primary
Closed primary - General election: Which of the nominees gets to holds office?
House of Representatives (two-year term)
President (four-year term)
Senate (six-year term)
Determining the Winner in Congressional Elections
Congressional districts are single-member districts.
Districts are geographically determined.
- Senators represent entire states
- House candidates compete within congressional districts
Winning requirements:
- Plurality voting: getting the most votes
- Majority voting: getting over 50 percent of the votes
- Runoff elections: top two finishers in a head-to-head race
Constitutional Requirements for Candidates
President: must be at least 35 years old and be a natural-born citizen.
Senator: must be at least 30 years old and a resident of the state and U.S. citizen for 9 years.
Representative: must be at least 25 years old and a resident of the state and U.S. citizen for 7 years.
