POLS 1101 Lecture 23Outline of Last Lecture I. What are Parties?II. Party in GovernmentIII. Party as OrganizationsIV. Party in the ElectorateV. First Party System: 1796-1824VI. Second Party System: 1832-1860VII. Third Party System: 1860-1896VIII. Fourth Party System: 1896-1932IX. Fifth Party System: 1932-1980X. Sixth Party System: 1980-presentOutline of Current Lecture I. A PuzzleII. Solving a Coordination ProblemIII. Answering the PuzzleIV. Why Do Party Systems Change?V. Party TrendsVI. Why Two Parties?VII. Maurice Duverger’s LawVIII. Would you ever vote for one of these candidates?IX. In Comparison: PartiesCurrent Lecture: I. A Puzzle- Why are parties criticized, yet indispensable in a democracy?- President George Washington warned of “evils” of parties- Political parties are a bad thing for democracy, I don’t want to be any part of that- Scholars think parties are necessary for democracya. Solve collection action problemso Parties in government can solve unstable coalitions, coalition rating, & coordination problemsII. Solving a Coordination Problem- Coordinating candidate selection is not easy- Used to be chosen at conventions- Party loyalists could show up and vote for the local level- You could be chosen to be a delegate for the national convention (more democratic and inclusive)- Historically, party insiders chose candidatesa. “smoke-filled rooms”: party leaders get together without members to decide what’s best for party and their nominations- Candidates are now chosen by primaries or caucuses (most inclusive means)- Varies state to state- Caucuses: meeting for a party where you vote on who your parties nominees for various offices should be, among other issues – From organization standpoint, builds up the party and party loyalty more – 2008, TX said 2/3 of votes to DNC will be decided by the primary & 1/3 will be decided by the caucus (RARE)- Primaries: ordinary election- Single-member plurality: whoever has the most votes wins, not the majority (NOT GA)III. Answering the Puzzle- Parties clearly help democracy function properly- Serve as labels that help members of the public identify who can take the heat- Serve as labels who people want to vote for- Why do people dislike them?- Bodies with political conflict can impair the system- Parties are associated with conflict that is inherent in systema. Polarization is at a high: with the two parties, on all of the issues people are strictly on the party lines, not a lot of cross-over with compromises, etc. - In the halls of Congress as well- Media portrayals of partisan “bickering” without context- How can parties be useful? Hear the bad without seeing the good…IV. Why Do Party Systems Change?- Major issues split existing coalitionsa. Slavery: end of 2nd party system (WHIGs fell apart and replaced by Republicans)b. Civil rights: 1950-60s, 1964 presidential election key toward realignment towards the 6th party system (LBJ- for civil rights & Goldwater- against)- Party activists exploit new issues or raise salience of existing issuesa. Abortion: Roe v. Wade, various evangelical church leaders raised the importance of this issue  pro-republican party  lolb. Tariff V. Party Trends- Increased democratization: JFK 1960 – saw as opportunity to lock up a lot of delegates before the DNC to win on the second ballota. Campaigning actively in Primaries- Increased central organizationa. Nationalization of parties and elections- Two-Party system enduresa. Few small parties persist: during the 4th party system, progressive party longest lasting of third partiesVI. Why Two Parties?- Two major parties have consistently dominated American politicsa. 95% of votes cast are for one of two parties- Duverger’s Lawa. Single-member, plurality (SMP) electoral institutions produce two-party systems- Single-member Plurality: when you vote for offices, the entire country = single districts who elected one official to office & whichever candidate has the most votes wins… you lose by one vote, you lose… one member of the legislature at a time- British House of Commons: Conservatives & Liberal democrats joint teamo Strong third party- UK & Canada: have parliamentary systems of government more susceptible to regionally-defined politics/parties- We vote for legislature & president & forces us to think about politics in a national way (all 50 states) with two parties- UK: regional parties emerge, Scottish National Party (running in seats in local parties,beating others out) = majority of Scottish National Parliament - Presidential system: forces a national competition and local parties align with that national party- Strong alignment of social cleavages in the U.S.- Religion, race, income, urban v. rural are important to what the partisan divisions are… overlap in cleavages in US - Cleavages overlap in US and UK’s cross-cutVII. Maurice Duverger’s Law- Mechanical Effect of SMP:a. Parties not in the top two do not reap a proportional reward- Psychological Effect of SMP: there’s a third party candidate that you find appealing, what are people going to say to you? Why are you going to go waste your vote? Only the top-two will win!!a. Aware of the mechanical effect, voters do not waste votesb. Contrast the Netherlands: 150-seat House of Representatives, proportional representationi. 0.67% (2/3) of the vote=1 seatVIII. Would you ever vote for one of these candidates?- Third Party Candidates!- You’d be worried about wasting your votes- Vote: if you thought there wasn’t a dimes worth of difference between top twoIX. In Comparison: Parties- Most parliamentary democracies have more than two partiesa. Key factor: proportional representation (PR)- Coalition governments are common in parliamentary systems- Party discipline is greater in other countriesa. Ballot