POLITICAL PARTIES Pros and Cons Positive functions of

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-1880 s – 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 1960 s. . 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-morningconsult-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-andparty-unity-35 th-113 th-congress-1857 -2014/ • Compare 2014 Congress to 90 th Congress, 1960 s • Why higher party unity today (note it was also high in early 1900 s)? • 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 1900 s … See party platforms for evidence of RPG