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TAMU POLS 207 - State Political Parties
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Lecture 8Outline of Last Lecture I. Interest Groups in State Politics II. Main Types of Interest Groups a. Business, Occupational, Agriculture, Public Interest III. Strategies of Interest Groups a. Financial/Electoral Support, Lobbying, Public Relations Campaigning IV. Interest Group Power and Influence a. Factors: Diversity of State Industry, Party Strength, Professionalism, State Political Culture, Government Fragmentation V. Regulations of Interest Groups, Specifically In TexasOutline of Current Lecture: I. The Three Dimensions of Political Parties a. Party in Government, in the Electorate, as an Organization II. The Responsible Party Model III. Factors that have weakened party control over electoral politics IV. Flaws in the Responsible Party ModelV. Party Competition in the States a. unimodal verse bimodal distributions VI. Functions of State Party Elections a. Structuring Electionsb. Candidate Recruitment (contested versus uncontested, competitive versus noncompetitive)c. Voter Registrationd. Voter Mobilizatione. Campaign Resources Current LectureSTATE POLITICAL PARTIES - In defining what the term political party means, it is important to look at 3 different dimensions:o Party in the Government o Party in the Electorateo Party as an Organization - Party in the Government o all elected officials who identify with a political party o represent the party they identify with when in office - Party in the Electorate o people who vote and typically support a specific party o represent the party they identify with by voting - Party as an Organization o the buildings, offices, employees POLS 207 2nd Editiono employees who work to further the cause of the party, to get members elected, to get the message out The Responsible Party Model- 1) Parties should present clear and coherent policy choices and platforms to voters o different parties should have a clear distinctive platform to give voters a choice - 2) Voters should choose candidates according to what the parties present o look at the platform to vote, not the person - 3) Parties should recruit candidates that agree with party positions o makes voting for a platform work because the candidate will agree with it - 4) Parties should organize and direct candidates campaign o support, get the message out - 5) The winning party (candidate) should carry out the party platform once in office - >>reality is parties are not really like this, closest to it was probably the party machines in historyFactors that have weakened party control over electoral politics -1) Candidate centered politics/greater candidate reliance on mass media o whether its presidential, congressional, etc. voters will talk more about the candidate & less about the partyo candidates talk about their agenda on public tv, instead of the overall party goal-2) Decline of Party Identificationo increased percentage of voters declare themselves as independents o shows voters are looking more at the candidate than at the party label o rise of split ticket voting = pick Republic for president, Democrat for congressman, etc., picking different parties on voting day shows the greatest weakness of the party systemo decline of straight ticket voting = on election day, vote completely for Republic or Democrat, completely for one party, check the box for one party -3) Increased reliance on primary elections o in order for the party to mean what they say and voters to vote for the party, candidates need to truly represent the party and the party platform o in past, parties choose their candidates through conventionso political parties have now turned to choosing candidates in primaries – all voters now pick who the candidate is  its more democratic but candidates don’t necessarily agree with parties, just have to get the most votes -4) Less patronage, greater use of merit system o patronage = winning party would hand out jobs to its supporters o merit system = handing out jobs based on education, experience, skills, etc.  takes away ability of party to reward supporters now that parties don’t have the tool it is harder to keep supporters loyal  weakens political party loyalty -5) Interest Groups and PACs (Political Action Committees)o PACs funding and interest group’s support of campaigns has weakened political parties o in past, candidates had to rely on partieso today, candidates can get support from interest groups and PACs which means candidates do not have to be as loyal to the party - in weakening political parties, the US less represents the Responsible Party Model Some Pretty Big Flaws in The Responsible Party Model-1) Parties do not present clear, distinct policy choices o it is sometimes irrational for them to present clear choiceso if need to convince a majority of people, parties try to be more central, more towards the middle to appeal to most voters (don’t want to be extremist)o the parties are going to be similar if they are all competing for the middle group of voters-2) Most voters do not think in terms of party platforms and do not vote on issueso then how are voters voting? it’s about the candidates this candidate is Republic, this candidate is honest, is supportive of people like me…-3) Parties cannot discipline their members o to carry out platform, need a legislature block that supports the platform, yet legislative votes ofboth political parties often defect from their party platform and party leadership o in other countries, if you don’t support the party, they will not help you get reelected, but in US,the voters in the primary now determine who can be reelected, so legislators just have to go back to their home state and get primary votes Party Competition in the States - The effects of party competition on public policyo Parties will have little impact on public policy when there is a unimodal distribution of voters o Parties will have a greater impact on public policy when there is a bimodal distribution of voters - unimodal distribution = majority of votes are in the middle between liberal (Democrat) and conservative (Republic), both parties come towards the center, to be more moderate, don’t want to alienate themselves from the voters - bimodal distribution = two peaks of voters, one peak more towards the liberal side, one peak more towards the conservative side, still won’t be real extreme but will aim at that the peak, o in this case, there is greater distance


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TAMU POLS 207 - State Political Parties

Type: Lecture Note
Pages: 4
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