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 don’t really like our political parties

• What Washington is saying:

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

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

• 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

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

Political Parties are “Brands”

• A lot of politics involves persuasion

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

• Persuasion = marketing

• 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”

• 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

Features of the American Party System

• 1. Two-party competition

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

• Our electoral system only supports 2 political

parties.

• Single-member districts with plurality elections

– SMDP system

SMDP

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

Plurality Elections

• Winning office usually does not require a

majority vote

Duverger’s Law

• SMDP systems lead to two-party competition

– Why?

• SMDP encourages strategic voting

– Def: Voting for someone other than your first choice

• 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

• Our population:

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

• 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!

Consequences

• SMDP systems encourage many voters to vote

strategically

– Specifically, those with strongly ideological views

• Most voters are pretty moderate

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

• 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

• BUT, these coalitions can be hard to keep

together

– Big tent parties are vulnerable to wedge issues

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

– Realignment

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

• 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

• By the 1960s, the economy had long

recovered

– New issues began to emerge

• As Democrats embraced civil rights laws,

alienated many Southerners