Political Parties Chapter 7 Nobody Wants to Party Fun Fact: A lot - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Political Parties Chapter 7 Nobody Wants to Party Fun Fact: A lot - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Political Parties Chapter 7 Nobody Wants to Party Fun Fact: A lot of Americans dont really like our political parties What Washington is saying: Political factions are inevitable, but dangerous. Faction = Any group


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Political Parties

Chapter 7

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Nobody Wants to Party

  • Fun Fact:

– A lot of Americans don’t really like our political parties

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  • What Washington is saying:

– Political “factions” are inevitable, but dangerous. – Faction = Any group that puts its own interest above the best interest of everybody

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Political Parties are “Teams”

  • Our government creates huge coordination

problems

  • 1. Elections

a. Candidates for office need to get thousands to millions of votes to compete b. Again and again and again

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  • 2. In government
  • Getting anything done requires building

majorities

– Across BOTH chambers of Congress – And getting the President on board – AND between the states & federal gov’t

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  • As “teams”, Political parties:
  • 1. Mobilize voters
  • 2. Build stable alliances
  • 3. Recruit new members / future elites
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Political Parties are “Brands”

  • A lot of politics involves persuasion

– Vote for me! – Support this legislation! – Agree with my plan!

  • Persuasion = marketing
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  • Branding is one of the key ideas

– A brand is an “information shortcut”

  • The brand name itself is meant to give information

about the product

  • “Brand identity”
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  • Remember from last chapter:

– Part of the cost of voting is the information cost – Party leaders work to make sure the party’s name (the party label) communicates information to voters

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Features of the American Party System

  • 1. Two-party competition

– How can 305,000,000 Americans fit into just 2 political parties?

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  • Our electoral system only supports 2 political

parties.

  • Single-member districts with plurality elections

– SMDP system

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SMDP

  • SMD means that we generally elect one
  • fficeholder at a time
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Plurality Elections

  • Winning office usually does not require a

majority vote

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Duverger’s Law

  • SMDP systems lead to two-party competition

– Why?

  • SMDP encourages strategic voting

– Def: Voting for someone other than your first choice

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  • How it works:

– Assume:

  • 1. District with 100 voters
  • 2. No political parties
  • 3. Each voter chooses the candidate closest in ideology
  • 4. 4 ideologies, 1 candidate from each
  • 5. SMDP system
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  • Our population:

Very Conservative 7 voters Conservative 44 voters Liberal 45 voters Very Liberal 4 voters

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  • 2 problems:
  • 1. 55% of the population voted against the winner
  • BUT the plurality winner gets 100% of the available
  • ffice

– Disproportionate

  • 2. If the “very conservatives” voted for the

conservative candidate, she would have been unbeatable – 51% of the vote!

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Consequences

  • SMDP systems encourage many voters to vote

strategically

– Specifically, those with strongly ideological views

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  • Most voters are pretty moderate

– So, we get 2 big parties, 1 “center-left” and 1 “center-right”

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  • 2. “Big Tent” parties

– The 2 parties must try to appeal to a wide range

  • f voters

– Big tent parties are coalitions of different interests, philosophies, and values

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  • BUT, these coalitions can be hard to keep

together

– Big tent parties are vulnerable to wedge issues

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  • Wedge issues are usually “temporary,” but…
  • Sometimes, an issue can “permanently” drive
  • ut an element of the party coalition

– Realignment

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American Party Coalitions

  • Just 40 years ago, the South had:

– 0 Republican governors – 1 Republican Senator

  • Biggest shift in the last 50 years:

– Realignment of white Southerners from strongly Democratic to largely Republican

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  • Why?

– Since Reconstruction, the South was the main part

  • f the Democratic coalition

– In the 1930s, joined with northern workers &

  • thers in the “New Deal” coalition
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  • By the 1960s, the economy had long

recovered

– New issues began to emerge

  • As Democrats embraced civil rights laws,

alienated many Southerners