PowerPoint PresentationAmerican Political PartiesOverviewDefinitionFunctionsSlide 6Slide 7Slide 8Slide 9History of American Party SystemHistorySlide 12Slide 13Slide 14Slide 15Slide 16Slide 17Slide 18Slide 19Slide 20Why 2 Parties?Slide 22Slide 23Slide 24Slide 25Why 2 PartiesParty OrganizationSlide 28Slide 29Slide 30Slide 31CampaignsCampaign FinanceSlide 34Slide 35Slide 36Slide 37Slide 38Slide 39Slide 40Slide 41ElectionsVoting ParadoxSlide 44Voting SystemsRanked SystemsSlide 47Slide 48Other SystemsSlide 50Slide 51Methods of VotingSlide 53Slide 54Slide 55Parties, Elections, and DemocracyHappy St.Paddy’s Day!American Political PartiesOverview•Definition•Functions•Evolution of the American Party System•The Two Party System•Party Organization•Campaign FinanceDefinition•Political Parties–A group of political activists who organize to win elections, operate the government, and determine public policy.Functions•Candidate Recruitment–Parties need to find viable candidates for a whole range of elected positions at the federal and state level–Obstacles to recruitment include:•time, privacy, finances,prospectsFunctions•Organizing and Running Elections–Providing resources for candidates–Providing ideas for candidatesFunctions•Presenting alternatives to the electorate–Voters need choices among candidates and among policy alternatives–Democratic Party Platform–Republican Party PlatformFunctions•Operating the government–legislative leadership positions–executive appointments–judicial appointmentsFunctions•Providing organized “loyal” opposition to government (minority party or parties only)–Make sure, if not in power, that party is ready for next election•leaders•issues•policiesHistory of American Party System•US developed the modern political party•US relatively unique in the world in having a 2-Party System–most of the world is multiparty (with a few uniparty systems in non-democratic states)History•Founding Period–Federalists vs Antifederalists•issues–size and power of national government•base–Federalists primarily merchant/commerical/wealthy–Antifederalists primarily small farmer/craftsmen and southHistoryPost Constitution/Post Washington–Federalists (Adams) vs Republicans (Jefferson)issues: –size and power of national government–state rightsbase:–Federalist: wealthy merchant and commerical intersests–Republican: artisans farmersHistory“Era of Good Feelings”–Following War of 1812, Federalists cease to be a major party at the national level, confined primarily to New England–Enter period of One Party rule•1816-1825 (Monroe)•Competition among individual Republican candidates, or factions within the Republican party, but not really different partiesHistoryBirth of the Modern Democratic Party–1824 Election the Republican Party splits, when Andrew Jackson leaves party to form own–Republicans change name to National Republicans–Jackson wing becomes the Democratic Party•This is the same Democratic Party we have today–1828 Jackson wins, National Republicans rename themselves Whigsissues: “popular” democracy, federalpowerbase: Dems - rural/south, Whigs: north, urbanHistoryBirth of the Republican Party–1856 modern Republican Party forms–remnant of Whig party split, anti-slavery Democrats, and the Free Soil PartyHistoryRepublican Party Dominance–From 1860 through 1932•Republicans control White House •every presidential election cycle with the exception of–Grover Cleveland (1885-1889; 1883-1897)–Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)HistoryDemocratic Party Dominance–From 1932 to 1968 Democrats control White House (with the exception ofDwight Eisenhower (1952-1960)and they controlCongress from 1932 to 1952HistoryContemporary Party–Republican Ascendance?•1968 to 2008 Republicans control White House for all except:–Carter (1976-1980)–Clinton (1992-2000)–Obama (2009- ?)History•Democratic Party controls both houses of Congress from 1955-1980, and the House from 1955 until 1994.•Republicans control both houses of Congress from 1994-2000; House from 1994 to 2006.•With 2008 results, too soon to say if we are moving to new Democratic eraWhy 2 Parties?•Election and Ballot Access Laws–State legislatures devise ballot access laws–State legislatures are dominated by the major parties–State legislatures make it difficult for minor parties to challenge the major party monopolyWhy 2 Parties?•Neither major party is ideologically rigid–Both Democratic and Republican parties can shift platform to accomodate new social movements–Difficult for minor parties to find any room to maneuver between the 2 major partiesWhy 2 Parties?•Winner Take All vs. Proportional Representation (PR)–In PR systems, seats in the legislature are allocated to parties based on the percentage of vote they receive in the election•for example, if a party receives 15% of the votes, it would get roughly 15% of the seats in the legislatureWhy 2 Parties?•Winner Take All vs. Proportional Representation (PR)–In PR, parties do not need to “win” an election in order to have representation in the legislature–Seems to encourage multiple parties since even small parties can influence legislative process and bring some measure of “success” to its membership baseWhy 2 Parties?•Winner Take All (WTA) vs. Proportional Representation (PR)–In WTA, seats are allocated according to single member districts–Parties must “win” the election in order to win a seat–Undermines minor parties since they have little to show supporters after the electionWhy 2 Parties•Tradition–Both major American parties have deep roots in American political cultureParty Organization•The two party model we’ve described is only partly accurate in that federalism creates something more like 52 parties with 2 common names•That is, we have two national parties (the Democratic and Republican parties) and 50 state versions of these partiesParty OrganizationNationalStateLocalParty OrganizationNationalStateLocalparty voters and identifiersactivists and volunteersward and precinct committeesParty OrganizationNationalStateLocalcity & county com.congressional district com.state committees & conventionsParty OrganizationNationalStateLocalchairperson andnational committeenational partyconventionCampaigns•Traditional vs. “Professional” Campaigns–More expertise•media