terms of interest	national conventions	Single issue interest group
Political party	nominations	Public Interest groups
Political party identification (ID)	minorty party	Corporate interest groups
Independents	majority party	coalition
"third" parties	Lobbying & Lobbyists
divided government	PACs (political action committee)

Ch. 9 -  Where Your Party at?

Key concepts from the Text:

- America is one of the few countries with only two storng political parties (the 2 pary system). - It is to the advantage of both major parties to bring in minor parties and social movements. - American political parties are coalitions of many interests, people and beliefs. - Electoral realignments define the important stages of American democracy. - Political party dealignmnet means others, like interest groups and corporations, are now doing what political parties used to do and o many Americans the power, relevence and importance of political parties has fallen greatly.

Do parties still matter if so many people no longer identify with either political party?

Are political parties as important as they were 100 years ago? Absolutely not. Are they still even important at all? Sure, but probably not to the majority of Americans.

Where's the Party?

All democracies have political parties . England has two major, stable parties (like in the U.S.), but France's party structure keeps changing. Japan just had a major change in the early nineties when the long ruling (since the end of WWII) LDP party split into many factions. Now, the LDP was in a loose coalition of several parties.

Are You a MUGWUMP?

A hundred years ago, in the U.S., most adults, even women who could not vote at the time, identified themselves with one political party or another. Today, people seem to shy away from party identification. They call themselves "independents…I'm in the middle…" A hundred years ago these people would be called " MUGWUMPS ." It was a pejorative term meaning a gutless fool who wants it both ways ("has his mug on one side of the fence and his wump on the other").

Political Party Realignments

Your text does a great job discussing the five party realignments in our history. essentially one party goes up in power popularity and influence for ten or twenty years and then something happens and it is flipped. Now the other party stays popular for a while. This change is called party realignment. Do not confuse that with:

Political Party DEALIGNMENT

Our culture has changed and today most people see less value in party identification. Both parties seem less important today than ever before. This is known as De-alignment: both parties losing power, influence, and importance in the political system.

Re-alignment is when one party goes up in power, influence, and importance in the system for a decade or so and the other declines (like a flip/flop). This change has happened five or six times in our history (historians argue about this all the time). Re-alignment is not that important compared to De-alignment.

De-alignment has occurred throughout the 1900's to today. There are many reasons for De-alignment. The civil service exam and the merit principle replaced the older patronage system (also called "the spoils system"). " Party Machines " ran most big cities 100 years ago and the progressive reforms sought to lessen the power of the parties and they have.

Primary elections also have taken power from the party bosses and given it to voters.

TV, and it's cost, have changed the way elections are conducted. Parties don't have much money compared to Interest Groups, PACs and other corporate interests. Many state parties have more money than the national party organization.

Also, re-elected candidates can compile "war chests" of money that they know will be spent (by PACs) on their campaigns. PACs give almost all of their money to incumbents. When they do give to challengers, often they also give to the incumbent.

Click here for more on Citizens United and the emergence of "Super Pacs."

"The parties are too much alike..."

Many people complain that the political parties are so much alike. Our culture doesn't support radical change. The people who vote are not radicals at all. They vote for the status quo. Corporations, too, wish to support the status quo.

But is there a bigger, clearer, more pronounced choice than Obama or Romney? The parties support the stautus quo but also they both want things to "change" in their favor.

More to the point, voters are now mostly Mugwumps (in the middle). Party activists may be important, but they can only vote once. Party activists are needed by the candidate to win the primary election, but often times the candidate must "reach out" to a broader audience. That audience is made up of mugwumps like you and me.

So what do political parties still do?

1. They recruit candidates to run for office and help others run for office.

2. They organize nominations.

3. They "get out the vote."

4. They facilitate voter choice (or at least the appearance of choice).

5. They organize power in Congress and in state houses.

6. Most candidates still need political party help to get elected.

 

some things to think about (Remember - half of the final exam questions come from these "some things to think about" questions) You should be able to discuss each of these.

1. How has your parents party identification affected your choice of party? Is there a strong relationship between their party choices and your own? According to your religious affiliation, ethnicity, gender, residence and social class, what party would you be expected to belong to? 2. In the past, critics have frequently charged that there are very few differences between the two major parties. Is that true today? What do you think the Republicans and Democrats said they stood for in the nineties? Has it changed? How and why? 3. In what ways have American parties become weaker? what are the advantages and disadvantages to a system characterized as having weak political parties?