2.  Political parties elect members to public
office and keep the public informed about
political issues.
 For almost all of its history, The United States
has had a two-party system.
 The two major parties are the Democrats and
the Republicans.

3.  Students will understand what political
parties do.
 Students will understand that the United
States has a two party system.
 Students will understand that political parties
have played a major role in American History.

4.  Students will understand that minor parties
have an effect on elections in many ways.
 Students will understand what the typical
structure of a political party is like.
 Students will understand that often third
party ideas become adopted by the major
parties and do become part of the fabric of
our nation.

5.  Vetting – a part of the approval function of
parties. Parties will make sure candidates are
without blemish so as not to embarrass the
party.
 Coalition – a large group with varied interests
that works together to achieve common
goals.
 Consensus – agreement
 Electorate – voters
 Constituents – those who are represented

6.  Realignment - when the party who has been
in power loses the election and the power
switches over to the rival party.
 GOP – Grand Old Party, refers to the
Republicans
 Dems – refers to the Democrats
 Bipartisan – composed or representative of
the two major parties
 Ideology – a belief system

7.  A group of persons who seek to control
government through the winning of elections
and the holding of public office.
 Also, a group of persons joined together on
the basis of common principals, who seek to
control government in order to affect certain
public policies and programs.

8.  A link between people and the government, it
makes the will of people known and holds
government accountable for its actions and
policies.
 Political Parties can be organizations that
form coalitions and bring conflicting groups
together.

9.  Major Parties
Republican and Democrat

10.  1. Nominating Candidates
 2.Informing and Activating Supporters
 3. Bonding or Approval Agent
 4. Governing
 5. Acting as a “Watchdog”

11. 1. Nominating Candidates
Political parties select candidates and help
them win elections.

12. 2. Informing and Activating Supporters
• Political parties inform and inspire voters as they
campaign for candidates, take stands on issues,
and criticize the candidates and positions of their
opponents.
• They promote their positions and candidates
through pamphlets, buttons, stickers; advertising
through advertisements in newspapers and
magazines and on radio, television, and the
Internet; and in speeches, rallies, and
conventions.

13. 3. Acting as a “Bonding /Approval Agent”
The party gives it’s Seal of Approval to candidates
• Political parties nominate qualified candidates of
ability and character to ensure that they will
perform well when in office.
• This process is known as VETTING.
• When their candidates are in office, political
parties ensure that they perform well.
• Failure to perform well will damage the party’s
relationship with the voters.

14. 4. Governing
Government in the United States is governing by party in several ways:
– Congress and State legislatures are organized along party lines, and much
business is done on the basis of partisanship-the strong support of their
party and its policy stands.
– Appointments to executive offices at the federal and State levels are also
made with party considerations in mind.
– The separation of powers, in which the executive and legislative branches
work together, is carried out through political parties.
– The procedures followed in the Electoral College were shaped by political
parties in its early years.

15.  5. Acting as a “Watchdog”
 The party out of power criticizes the policies
and officeholders in the majority power.
 They serve as the “loyal opposition”-opposed
to the party in power but loyal to the People
and nation.

16.  Only Republican or Democrat Party
candidates have a reasonable chance of
winning public office.

17.  a political party that lacks wide voter support.

18.  HISTORICAL BASIS
 The Founders were leery about political
parties:
◦ James Madison Federalist No. 10: “By a faction, I
understand a number of citizens, whether
amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole,
who are united and actuated by some common
impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the
rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and
aggregate interests of the community.” (1787)

19. ◦ George Washington’s Farewell Address warns of
“the baneful effects of the spirit of party.” (1796)
 The Constitution contains no provisions for
political parties.
 Political parties ended up being moderate,
advocating middle-of-the-road positions
that united the country.

20.  THE FORCE OF TRADITION
 Political parties emerged as the Constitution
was first being put into effect, making them
part of the “unwritten Constitution.”
 Third parties have a hard time developing a
following because America has always had a
two-party system.
 Americans accept this system as a given.

21.  THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM
 The electoral system itself promotes a two-
party system.
 Nearly all elections are in the U.S. are in
SINGLE-MEMBER DISTRICTS. Only one
candidate is elected to each office on the
ballot.
◦ The winning candidate is one who receives a
plurality, or the largest number of votes cast. A
plurality need not be a majority, which is more than
half of all votes cast.

22.  Political parties act in a bipartisan way to
shape the rules that determine who can make
it onto the ballot. Nearly all State legislators
are either Republican or Democrat.

23.  AMERICAN IDEOLOGICAL CONSENSUS
 Americans are largely an ideologically
homogeneous people, yet we are also
pluralistic society-one consisting of several
distinct cultures and groups.

25.  There is still consensus-general agreement
on fundamental matters:
◦ Major parties are largely moderate, built on
compromise, and occupy “the middle of the road.”
◦ Both parties also focus on attracting a majority of
the electorate.
◦ Positions are largely alike.

26.  Differences:
◦ Democratic Party-favors social welfare programs,
government regulation of business practices,
efforts to improve the status of minorities.
◦ Republican Party-favors the free market, less
extensive Federal Government.

27.  Multiparty system-several major and many
lesser parties exist, seriously compete for,
and actually win public offices.

28.  Mostly European democracies.
 Political parties are based on a particular
interest: economic class, religious belief,
sectional attachment, or political ideology.

29.  Strengths: It provides for a broader
representation of the electorate and more
responsive to the will of the people.
 Weaknesses: It leads to political instability
because one party cannot win the support of
the majority of the voters. This leads to a
Coalition government-a temporary alliance of
several groups who come together to form a
working majority and so to control a
government.

30.  One-party systems-only one party is allowed
to exist, in nearly all dictatorships today.

31.  This country has had several States and many
local areas that can be described as one-
party systems. Until the 1950’s, the
Democrats ruled the South and the
Republicans dominated New England and the
upper Midwest.
 One-third of American States can be said to
be under one-party rule. In New York, for
instance, Democrats outnumber Republicans
5 to 3.

32.  Party membership is voluntary.
 Each party is made up of a cross-section of
the American electorate.
 Two out of three Americans follow the party
loyalty of their parents.

33.  The Democratic Party tends to attract African
Americans, Catholics and Jews, and union
voters, and lower income groups.
 The Republican Party attracts white males,
Protestants, the business community, and
higher income groups.

34.  Age, place of residence, level of education,
and work environment may also influence
party identification; however, these will often
be in conflict.

36.  Traces back to the battle over the
Constitution.
 T. Jefferson VS. A. Hamilton

37.  Federalist Party-Alexander Hamilton
◦ Stronger national government.
◦ Strengthen the national economy.
◦ Supporters: financiers, manufacturers, commercial
interests.
◦ Loose interpretation of the Constitution.

38.  Democratic-Republicans
(After 1828-they’re the Democrats)
 Limited role for the new national government.
 Congress should dominate.
 Supporters: small shopkeepers, laborers,
farmers, planters.
 Strict Interpretation of the Constitution.

39. In 1800-realignment-the Federalists lose the
presidency and control of the Congress-the
Democrats are in power until 1860.

40.  This is when the party who has been in power
loses the election and the power switches
over to the rival party.

41.  The Era of the Democrats (1800-1860)
 The Era of the Republicans (1860-1932)
 The Return of the Democrats (1932-1968)
 The Start of a New Era (1968-Present)

42.  The Federalist Party disappears by 1816.
 National Republican (Whig) Party-Emerges.
 Issues: Second Bank of the United States, high
tariffs, and slavery
 Democrats-under Andrew Jackson-
Supporters: small farmers, debtors, frontier
pioneers, slaveholders-mostly South and
West.

43.  Voting rights for all white males.
 Huge increases in the number of elected
offices around the country.
 Spread of the “spoils system”-practice of
awarding public offices, contracts, and other
government favors to those who supported
the party in power.

44.  Henry Clay and Daniel Webster
 Loose coalition of eastern bankers,
merchants, and industrialists.
 Opposed to Jacksonian Democracy and
strongly supported high tariffs.
 Two Presidents of the United States William
Henry Harrison (1840) and Zachary Taylor
(1848). These 2 candidates won because
they were famous Generals, not necessarily
because of their political beliefs.

45.  Whigs and antislavery Democrats.
 1856-John C. Fremont
 1860-Abraham Lincoln
 Only 3rd party to go major in U.S. History.

46.  -Republican supporters: business and
financial interests, farmers, laborers, and
newly freed African Americans
 -The Democrats hold onto the “Solid South.”
Their only President was Grover Cleveland
(1884, 1892).

47.  The election of 1896 was a critical year in the
development of the two-party system.
 Small business owners, farmers, and
emerging labor unions protested against big
business, financial monopolies, and the
railroads.

48.  Republicans nominated William McKinley who
supported the gold standard, and the
Democrats nominated William Jennings Bryan
who supported the free coinage of silver.
 The Republicans gained widespread support
from the electorate (those able to vote), and
became the dominant party for the next three
decades.

49.  In 1912, the former Republican Theodore
Roosevelt’s [splinter-party ] Progressive
“Bull Moose” Party handed Democrat
Woodrow Wilson a narrow victory. He was
reelected by a narrow margin again in
1916.
 For the rest of the 1920’s the GOP
dominated national politics with three
successive Presidents, Warren Harding
(1920), Calvin Coolidge (1924), and Herbert
Hoover (1928).

50.  The Great Depression not only brought the
Democrats back to power, it also
fundamentally shifted the public’s attitude
toward the proper role of government.
 Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s supporters were
southerners, small farmers, organized labor,
and big-city political organizations. He also
attracted the attention of African Americans
and other minorities to the Democrats.

51.  His Vice President, Harry Truman was
reelected in 1948.
 The next President,
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961), was a
Republican – a famous WW2 General.
 The next two Presidents,
Kennedy (1961-1963) and Johnson (1963-
1969) were Democrats.

52.  The Democratic Party was torn apart by the
Vietnam Conflict, civil rights, and various
social issues. Richard Nixon, Republican from
California, was able to defeat Lyndon Baines
Johnson’s VP Hubert Humphrey in 1968.
 In 1968, George Wallace, running on a racist
American Independent Party platform
managed to win the deep South. Nixon won
with a bare plurality.

53.  Nixon was reelected in 1972, but resigned in
disgrace in 1974. His Vice President, Gerald
R. Ford faced a worsening economy and lost
to Democrat Georgia Governor James “Jimmy”
Earl Carter in 1976.

54.  The economy worsened, and the political
fallout from the Iranian hostage crisis led to a
victorious Republican Governor of California
Ronald Wilson Reagan to win in 1980.
 President Regan was reelected in a landslide
in 1984. His VP, George Herbert Walker Bush
would only win a single term due to serious
economic problems in the early 1990’s.

55.  Democrat Arkansas Governor William “Bill”
Jefferson Clinton would go on to serve two
terms as President.
 His VP, Albert Gore, would lose a bid to win
the presidency when he failed to earn enough
electoral votes after winning the popular vote.
This hadn’t happened since 1888.

57.  George Walker Bush would go on to serve two
terms. In 2002, the GOP actually picked up
seats in both houses of Congress. This hadn’t
happened to Republican president in 100
years.
 In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama was
elected President of the United States.

58.  Obama was re-elected in 2012.
 In the 2016 election there was another
realignment when Republican Donald Trump
wins the electoral college and the presidency,
despite Democrat Hillary Clinton winning the
popular vote.

59. MINOR PARTIES IN THE U.S.
 Ideological Parties
 Single-Issue Parties
 Economic Protest Parties
 Splinter Parties

60.  Focus on a particular set of beliefs-social,
economic, political
 Mostly Marxist-Socialist, Socialist Labor,
Socialist Workers, Communist Party.

61.  Also, Libertarian Party-individualism, calls for
the elimination of most government functions
and programs.
 The Libertarians grew out of a ultra
conservative arm of the Republican Party.
 Long-lived but with few voters.

62.  Focus on only one public policy matter.
 Free Soil, American (“Know-Nothing”), Right-
to-Life
 Most fade away because the events pass or
the theme fails to attract voters
 Frequently major parties adopt their platform.

63.  Formed during economic downturns.
 Sectional parties:
 Greenback Party (1876-1894)
 Appealed to struggling farmers.
 Called for: free coinage of silver, federal regulation of
the railroads, federal income tax, labor legislation.

64.  Populist Party (1890’s)
 Demanded public ownership of railroad,
telephone, and telegraph companies, lower
tariffs, adoption of the initiative and
referendum.

65.  Split away from major parties.
 Most important minor parties.
 Form around strong personalities and fall
apart when those individuals leave politics.

66.  Republican Party splinters: Progressive “Bull
Moose” (1912), Robert LaFollette’s
Progressive Policy (1924)
 Democratic Party splinters: Henry Wallace’s
Progressive Party, State’s Rights (Dixiecrat)
Party (1948), American Independence Party
(1968)

67.  Greens (Ralph Nader)-Environmental
protection, universal healthcare, gay and
lesbian rights, restraints on corporate power,
campaign finance reform, opposition to
global free trade.

68.  Contributions:
 Anti-Masons-first to use a national
convention to nominate a presidential
candidate (1831)
 “Spoiler Role”-minor parties can pull votes
away from major parties-“Bull Moose” Party
pulled voters away from the Republicans in
1912 and the Green Party pulled away voters
in 2000.

69.  Critic and Motivator-they take stands on
controversial issues that major parties find
too difficult to handle like the progressive
federal income tax, woman’s suffrage,
railroad and banking legislation, old age
pensions.
 Often their ideas become adopted by the
major parties and do become part of the
fabric of our nation
{examples: Amendments 16-19}.

70. THE DECENTRALIZED NATURE OF THE
PARTIES
 Political parties are highly decentralized,
fragmented, disjointed, and beset by factions
and internal squabbling.
 There is no chance chain of command from
national to State or State to local levels.

71.  The president’s party is usually solidly united
and more cohesively organized than the
opposition party.
 The president serves as party leader, has
media access, popularity, power to make
appointments to federal office, and can
dispense favors.
 The party out of power has no recognized
leader, although there are individuals
regarded as future leaders.

72.  The system of government in which we
operate is also highly decentralized, with
thousands of elective offices at the national
and State and local levels.

73.  Candidate selection is an intraparty process
where nominations are made within a party.
 The nominating process is often divisive,
pitting Republican versus Republican and
Democrat versus Democrat.
 This is a very fragmenting process.

74.  There are four basic elements: national
convention, national committee, national
chairperson, congressional campaign
committees.

75.  The party’s national voice.
 It meets the summer of every presidential
election year to nominate the party’s
presidential and vice presidential nominees.
 The party also adopts its rules and platform.
 Apart from the above, the convention holds
very little additional authority.

76.  Operates between conventions.
 Republican National Committee (RNC) seats
several of the party’s chairpersons in each
State, D.C., Guam, American Samoa, Puerto
Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
 Democratic National Committee (DNC) is even
larger, including several members of
Congress, governors, mayors (SUPER
DELEGATES), and Young Democrats.
 The committees have very little clout.

77.  Leads the national committee.
 Holds a four-year term that begins after the
national convention. The choice of
chairperson is made by the just-nominated
presidential candidate and is the ratified by
the national committee.
Steele

78.  The chairperson directs the work of the
party’s headquarters and its small staff in
Washington, D.C..
 His or her focus is on organizing the
convention and then the campaign.
 In between, the chairperson works to
strengthen the party by raising money and
recruiting new voters.

79.  Each party has a campaign committee in each
house of Congress.
 They work to reelect incumbents and to make
sure that seats given up by retiring party
members remain in the party.
 In competitive Congressional districts, they
work to unseat the opposition party’s
candidate.

80.  Party structure is set by State law.

81.  THE STATE ORGANIZATION
 Party machinery is built around a State central
committee, headed by a State chairperson.
 The chairperson is usually a person of
importance in political circles.
 Their role: build an effective organization,
find candidates, and campaign funds

82.  Usually party structure follows the electoral
map of the State, by Congressional districts.
 Cities can also be broken down into WARDS.
 The smallest unit is called a PRECINCT. The
voters in each precinct report to one polling
place.

83.  Party Organization
 The Party in the Electorate
 The Party in Government

84.  All those who give their time, money, and
skills to the party whether as leaders or
followers.

85.  Party loyalists who vote the straight ticket,
who call themselves party members and who
usually vote for its candidates.

86.  The party’s officeholders, those who hold
elective and appointive offices in the
executive, legislative, and judicial branches at
the federal, State, and local levels of
government.

87.  Political parties have never been popular in
this country.
 They have been in a decline since the 1960’s.

88.  There has been a growing number of
independent voters.
 A big increase in SPLIT-TICKET VOTING-
voting for candidates of different parties for
different offices in the same election.

89.  Changes and reforms have made the parties
more open and this has led to more
disorganization.
 Changing technology-television, Internet,
professional campaign managers, direct-mail
advertising-make candidates less dependent
on a political party.

90.  The growth of single-issue organizations
who support a candidate based upon his or
her own agreeing with their closely defined
views like gun control or environmentalism.

91.  Are political parties necessary today?
 What can be done to make political parties
less divisive?
 Why do you think that often third party ideas
become adopted by the major parties?