Term
| National Organizations were politics without power |
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Definition
| The real power was decentralized, collected in the local party organizations |
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Term
| Almost all American public officials are chosen in... |
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Definition
| state and local elections, even the President is conducted mainly under state election laws |
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Term
| Since the 1970s, the 2 parties have reacted to a series of crisis by... |
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Definition
| strengthening their national committees. Both he DNC and RNC are now multimillion-dollar fund-raising and candidate-support operations |
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Term
| The distribution of power among the national, state, and local parties is now more |
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Definition
| balanced than ever before |
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Term
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Definition
| each party’s supreme national authority. It holds every four years to nominate a candidate for the presidency |
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Term
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Definition
| parties main governing body. Gathering of representatives from all its state parties. Main focus is to help elect the party’s presidential candidate; also promote the party’s issue agenda, and assist and help state parties |
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Term
| Old National Committee system |
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Definition
| over-representated the smaller states and also gave roughly equal weight in the national committees to the winning and losing parts of the party. |
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Term
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Definition
| Democrats revised the makeup of their national committee |
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Term
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Definition
| gives each of the state and territorial parties three seats on the RNC |
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Term
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Definition
| gives weight to both the population and to party support in representing the states |
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Term
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Definition
| By tradition, a party’s presidential candidate can name his or her party’s national chair for the duration of the presidential campaign and the committee ratifies this choice without question |
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Term
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Definition
| In practice, only the “out” party’s national committee actually selects its own chair |
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Term
| Early in the 20th century and especially since the 1960s and 70s |
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Definition
| Presidents came to dominate their national committees |
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Term
| in the President’s party, national committee’s role is |
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Definition
| whatever the president wants it to be |
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Term
| When the party does not hold the presidency, |
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Definition
| the national party chairs and committee have the freedom to play a more independent role in national politics |
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Term
| Because of many changes in campaign finance rules, |
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Definition
| the national committee has had to work separately from the presidential candidate’s own campaign organization in presidential elections. |
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Term
| House and Senate campaign committees, “Hill committees,” or Congressional Campaign Committees |
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Definition
| help with Senate and Congressional Campaigns. In short, they concentrate their money where they think they are likely to get the biggest payoff in increasing their party’s representation in Congress |
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Term
| Past 3 decades, Hill Committees |
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Definition
| provide party candidates with a ride range of campaign help, from get out the vote efforts to hard cash. For House and Senate committees, the Hill Committees are more influential than their parties’ national committees. |
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Term
| Democratic and Republican Governors’ Associates |
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Definition
| Governors have a powerful voice in national parties because they hold prestigious offices. |
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Term
| Central element in both national parties’ continued development |
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Definition
| their ability to to attract thousands of small contributions through mass mailings to likely party supporters. This gave national parties an independent financial base |
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Term
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Definition
| RNC - party organization that supports campaigns with money and other help, as opposed to running the campaigns itself |
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Term
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Definition
| in the 1960s when RNC Chair Ray Bliss involved the committee to a much greater degree in helping state and local parties with the practical aspects of party organizational work. |
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Term
| Two keys to success in performing new service role: |
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Definition
| money and campaign technologies |
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Term
| Democrats’ Procedural-Reform Path |
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Definition
| At the same time of Republicans Service Party path. Reformers supporting the civil rights movement and Vietnam War. Also changing the rules for selecting Presidential candidates. Aimed to make the nominating process more open and more representative of the concerns of people like themselves: blacks, women, and young people. |
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Term
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Definition
| Democrats limited the autonomy of the state parties and the authority of state law in determining how convention delegates would be selected, thus giving the national party the authority over the presidential nominating process. |
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Term
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Definition
| Democrats were dramatically improving their fund-raising, reducing their long-standing debt and increasing their activities in the states and localities. They were behind the Republicans though |
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Term
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Definition
| Democrats relied on this the most. Soft money - funds donated to party organizations in unlimited amounts, most often by labor unions, businesses, and wealthy individuals, and exempted from federal finance rules. |
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Term
| Campaign finance reform adopted in 2002 (BCRA) |
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Definition
| barred the national committees from collecting soft money after the 2002 elections. |
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Term
| After Campaign Finance rules |
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Definition
| both parties tried to make up for the lost soft money by working harder to attract hard-money donations from individuals. DNC expanded direct-mail fund-raising. |
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Term
| Although the biggest portion of fund-raising comes form individuals, an increasing proportion of the contributors to party committees and candidates were |
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Definition
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Term
| Early 1990s, the fed up Republicans |
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Definition
| pressed minority colleagues to donate some of their campaign war chests to Republicans in more competitive races. Aim was to redirect campaign money from those who could most easily raise it to those who needed it the most, therefore increasing the number of Republicans in the House |
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Term
| Since the 1994 elections, |
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Definition
| both parties’ Hill Committees have urged, and even required, their members to channel money to the party committee, not just to particular candidates |
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Term
| Since the mid 1980s, both national parties |
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Definition
| have become institutionalized as active, well-staffed “service parties” working to support party candidates and state and local organizations, not only through direct contributions and independent spending, but also through investments in voter identification and database management |
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Term
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Definition
| research issues, study the opponent’s record and background, and search for their own candidate’s weak points and ways to thwart attacks |
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Term
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Definition
| organized labor, minority groups, women, and invironmentalists |
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Term
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Definition
| Evangelical and other conservative Christian groups, and business organizations |
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Term
| National parties’ new strength has lessened the |
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Definition
| DECENTRALIZATION of the party organizations. |
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Term
| Dean’s “50-state strategy” in 2006 and 2008 elections |
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Definition
| Dean used DNC money to pay field organizers to work with each of the state parties. Starting in 2005, the DNC provided money for the state party to fund field directors in rural areas and to purchase a new database of voter information. |
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Term
| One of the areas of greatest conflict between the national parties and their state and local brethren centers on |
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Definition
| national party involvement in primaries |
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Term
| If the party organization backs a candidate who later loses the primary, |
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Definition
| then the party alienates the winning candidate, perhaps splits the state party in the process, and makes itself look weak to boot. |
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Term
| Federal Finding of presidential campaigns |
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Definition
| freed the national committees from their traditional concentration on presidential elections and allowed them to dedicate at least some of their resources to party-building at the state and local level. |
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Term
| As resource-rich as they have become, |
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Definition
| the American party organizations remain fairly decentralized by international standards. |
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Term
| Most American party organizations, especially at the local level, |
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Definition
| are still in the hands of part-time activists |
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Term
| The parties’ messages focus on the |
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Definition
| candidates rather than the party itself |
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Term
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Definition
| links between citizens and the people in government who make the decisions that affect our lives. They raise issues they want the government to address. |
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Term
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Definition
| NRA, NORML, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, universities, Wal-Mart, etc... |
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Term
| George Washington on parties |
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Definition
| Parties, he feared, would encourage people to pursue their narrow self-interest at other people’s expense, seek domination over others, and engenger jealousy, division, and revenge. Parties would lead to corrupt leaders |
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Term
| Strong party organizations help |
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Definition
| bring voters to the polls |
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Term
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Definition
| A party is a group organized to nominate candidates, to try to win political power through elections, and to promote ideas about public policies |
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Term
| What is a political party? |
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Definition
| parties are organizations; they are institutions that have a life and a set of rules of their own, beyond that of their candidates |
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Term
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Definition
| elected officials, candidates, party leaders, activists, and organizations |
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Term
| voters in primary elections make the single most important decision for their party: |
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Definition
| who its candidates will be |
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Term
| American Parties are composed of 3 parts: |
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Definition
| party organization, party in government, party in the electorate |
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Term
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Definition
| party leaders and the activists who work for party causes and the candidates |
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Term
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Definition
| composed of the men and women who run for and hold public office on the party’s label |
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Term
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Definition
| those citizens who express an attachment to the party. They are also called PARTISANS or PARTY IDENTIFIERS |
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Term
| Party Organizations - people who hold party jobs with titles |
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Definition
| these groups are charged with promoting ALL of the party’s candidates and its stands on major issues, not just an individual candidate or two. |
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Term
| Why treat party organization and the party in government as separate party of the party? |
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Definition
| The tensions, and the competition for scarce resources such as money |
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Term
| Partisans are vitally important as the core of the party’s electoral support; |
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Definition
| without this base, the party would have to work much harder to win and keep power |
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Term
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Definition
| They select candidates and contest elections; they try to educate citizens about issues important to the party; and they work to influence government to provide certain policies and other benefits. |
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Term
| The American Parties do not have a monopoly on educating citizens, working to elect candidates, or governing. |
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Definition
| They compete regularly with interest groups, other political organizations, and even the media in all these areas. |
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Term
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Definition
| dominates the party to a degree unusual among Western democracies |
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Term
| The effects of party activity |
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Definition
| First, parties help people make sense of the complexities of politics. Second, the American parties help aggregate and organize political power (They also provide an organized opposition). Third, because they are so focused on contesting elections, the parties dominate the recruitment of political leaders. Finally, the parties help pull together a divided American political system. |
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Term
| How do parties differ from other political groups? |
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Definition
Parties are paramount in elections
They have a full-time commitment to political activity
The mobilize Large numbers
They endure
They serve as political symbols |
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Term
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Definition
| led by Alexander Hamilton, championed centralized (federal government) control over the economy, a central banking system, and high tariffs to protect fledgling American industries |
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Term
| Thomas Jefferson and James Madison |
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Definition
| wanted to uphold the states’ rights against national government interference. |
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Term
| Early parties were formed “from the top" |
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Definition
| They focused at first on issues that concerned the national leaders who formed them |
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Term
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Definition
Led by Jefferson... began organizing in the states and local communities in time for the 1800 election.
The party of agrarian interests, the less-privileged, and the frontier, quickly established their electoral superiority and help a one-party monopoly for 20 years |
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Term
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Definition
| failed to keep up; splits arose within their caucus, and the Federalists began to disappear in most states soon after the defeat of their last President, John Adams, in 1800 |
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Term
| Absence of party and political conflict was |
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Definition
| Era of Good Feelings. This gave way to a 2-party system that has prevailed ever since. |
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Term
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Definition
| By then, most states had eliminated the requirement that only landowners could vote; the suffrage was extended to all white males, at least in state and federal elections |
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Term
| Most obvious change in the 1820s |
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Definition
| popular election was the most common method |
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Term
|
Definition
| Andrew Jackson led the frontier and agrarian wing of the Democratic-Republicans and they became the Democratic Party |
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Term
|
Definition
| formed from the National Republicans |
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Term
| First national nominating convention |
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Definition
| 1832 by the Jacksonian Democrats |
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Term
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Definition
| Whigs and the Democrats were established in the first truly national party system and were competitive in all the states |
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Term
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Definition
| created during the 1840s and 1850s after the Whigs collapsed. They were Antislavery activists. Adopted Whig commitment to protect American businesses with high tariffs and to levy high taxes in order to subsidize industrial development. Didn’t organize in the South and the Border States |
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Term
| Modern political parties similar to those we know today, |
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Definition
| had developed by the mid-1800s. |
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Term
| Congress closed the door to mass immigration in the... |
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Definition
|
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Term
| the city “machine” developed in response to the immigrants’ need and vulnerabilities |
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Definition
| Machines were like social service programs and provided services in exchange for the immigrants’ votes for the party’s candidates at election time. Classic case of “Party government” in American politics |
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Term
| Golden Age of American Politics |
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Definition
| Period of the late 1800s and early 1900s. Party organizations existed in all the states and localities and flourished in the industrial cities. Party discipline was at a record high in Congress. Parties ran everything and as a result, the highest voter turnouts in American presidential history were recorded during the latter half of the 1800s. |
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Term
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Definition
| Gave voters, rather than state legislatures, the right to elect US Senators. |
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Term
| The reformers attacked the party “boss rule” by |
|
Definition
| pressing for primary elections, which took the power to choose the parties’ candidates out of the hands of party leaders and gave it to voters instead |
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Term
| After progressive reforms of the early 1900s, |
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Definition
| Candidates, who could now appeal directly to primary voters, became more independent of the party organizations. The effect of the Progressive Reforms, then, was to undercut the dominance of the party organization within the party as a whole. |
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Term
| The traditional decentralization of the American parties |
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Definition
| has meant that party organizations in some states or local communities have taken stands different from organizations of the same party in other areas. |
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Term
|
Definition
| Greater agreement on policy stands WITHIN each party and sharper policy differences BETWEEN the Democrats and Republicans. |
|
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Term
| core of Democratic support comes from |
|
Definition
| the lower-income people, those living in the Northeast and West Coasts, minorities, and labor unions |
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Term
| core of Republican Party support |
|
Definition
| conservatives, conservative Christians, white southerners, and people living in rural and exurban areas |
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Term
| Abortions and Homosexuals |
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Definition
Republican Party - asks for government action to limit abortions and homosexual behavior and support conservative family values.
Democrats, the party that sees government as an ally for the needy, often wants government to stay out of individuals’ lives on issues such as abortion and homosexuality. |
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Term
| The twists and turns in party principles can sometimes stem from a party’s |
|
Definition
| efforts to pick up additional support |
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Term
|
Definition
| Each new group of voters entering the electorate challenges the parties to readjust their appeals as they vie for the group’s support. |
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Term
| 2 main rules of American politics |
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Definition
| federalism and the separation of powers |
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Term
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Definition
| No other parties among the world’s democracies are as entangled in legal regulations as are the American parties. State laws control the forms of their organization and even define the parties themselves, often by defining the right to place candidates on the ballot. |
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Term
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Definition
| Secret Ballot. Gave the responsibility for running election to government |
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Term
| A nation’s political culture |
|
Definition
| the set of political values and expectations held by its people |
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Term
| Public distrust of parties encourages candidates to campaign as... |
|
Definition
| individuals rather than as members of a party team. |
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Term
|
Definition
| Changes in the nature of mass media have profoundly affected the parties development. The media has weakened party control over candidates’ campaigns... media coverage tends not to pay much attention to the parties themselves. |
|
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Term
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Definition
| is one of the few democracies with a two-party system. |
|
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Term
|
Definition
| was the last President to win by more than 10% points in the popular vote. |
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Term
| The pattern of close competition at the national level has coexisted for a long time time with... |
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Definition
| ONE-PARTY DOMINANCE IN MANY STATES AND LOCALITIES |
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Term
|
Definition
| Approach most often used to measure interparty competition at the state level. |
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Term
| There appears to be more balanced party competition at the state level than in earlier years since WWII because... |
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Definition
| The driving force in this change has been a regional transition in party strength, especially in the South and New England |
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Term
| Most House candidates are elected... |
|
Definition
| with a comfortable margin of victory. This means there is a decline in party competition below the statewide level |
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Term
| Electoral value of incumbency |
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Definition
| From 1956 - 1988, for example, the average success rates for incumbents seeking reelection were 93% in the House and 81% in the Senate. Incumbency advantage has caused a brake on competition in these districts. |
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Term
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Definition
| Incumbents learned how to benefit from the “perks” of holding office - their name recognition and the attention they receive from the media, the services they can provide to constituents, the greater ease with which they can raise campaign money, as well as their experience in having run previous successful campaigns... These add up to what can be called the PERSONAL incumbency advantage. |
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Term
| The personal incumbency advantage cant fully explain why congressional races are getting less competitive... |
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Definition
| Another possible explanation is that during the past decade, state legislatures have been able to use sophisticated computer programs to redraw legislative district lines for themselves and for US House members. |
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Term
| Oppenheimer alternative for Declining Competitiveness |
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Definition
| new patterns of residential mobility are a major cause of declining party competition. As people have become more mobile, they are more able, and likely, to move to areas where like-minded people live. As a result, areas become more HOMOGENOUS |
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Term
|
Definition
| argues that single-member districts with plurality elections tend to produce two-party systems. The theory suggests that minor parties will see no point in running candidates if they don’t have a shot at winning |
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Term
|
Definition
| means simply that one candidate is elected to each office. |
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Term
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Definition
| is one in which the candidate with the largest number of votes, even if not majority, win |
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Term
| American election system is, for most offices, |
|
Definition
| a single-member district system with plurality election; it offers the reward of winning an office only to the one candidate who gets the most votes. |
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Term
| Proportional Representation |
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Definition
| each party prepares a slate of candidates for these positions, and the # of party candidates who win is proportional to the overall percentage of the vote won by the party slate. |
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Term
| What helps sustain Duverger’s Law |
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Definition
| The nature of the American Presidency. The presidency is the most visible single-member district in the USA. |
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Term
| In a system with a single executive, |
|
Definition
| minor parties will be weakened because they do not have a realistic chance to compete for the presidency |
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Term
| Because the presidency is so prominent in American politics, |
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Definition
| it shapes the politics of the system as a whole. 3rd parties have no chance of winning the Presidency and will not strive |
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Term
|
Definition
| have became the main method of selecting party candidates. |
|
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Term
|
Definition
| VO Key argued that tension between the eastern financial and commercial interests and the western frontiersmen stamped itself on the parties as they were forming and fostered two-party competition. Later shifted to North-South and then Urban-Rural. |
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Term
|
Definition
| there is a natural dualism within democratic institution: government vs. opposition, those favoring and opposing the status quo |
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Term
| Social Consensus Theories |
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Definition
| Values in American Society. Almost all Americans have traditionally accepted the prevailing social, economic, and political institutions: the Constitution and its governmental structure, a regulated but free enterprise economy, and American patterns of social class and status |
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Term
|
Definition
| The 2 major parties will support election systems that make it hard for minor parties to do well. The Democrats and Republicans have manipulated the rules to keep 3rd parties from qualifying for the ballot and third-party candidates from getting public funding. |
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Term
| Institutional arrangement of American electoral politics |
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Definition
| Without single-member districts, plurality elections, the EC, and an indivisible executive, it would have been must easier for 3rd parties to break the monopoly shared by the Republicans and Democrats |
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Term
|
Definition
| One of the Progressive movement’s most treasured achievements was to restrict the role of parties by removing party labels form many ballots, mostly in local elections. Removing party labels from the ballot has not usually removed partisan influences where parties are strong already. |
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Term
| What difference does it make if an election is nonpartisan? |
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Definition
| the MINORITY party in an area benefits because the nonpartisan ballot takes away the party cue that would otherwise remind the majority’s voters to choose the majority party’s candidates. |
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Term
|
Definition
| an important and low-cost shortcut for voters to use in elections; without it, fewer people make the effort to vote. |
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Term
| Downfall to nonpartisan elections |
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Definition
| it can weaken the policy links between voters and their legislatures |
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Term
| “safe” Democratic congressional districts |
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Definition
| in the poorer, older, and black neighborhoods of large cities |
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Term
| “safe” Republican districts |
|
Definition
| small town and rural, heavily white, Christian and southern areas. |
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Term
|
Definition
| can make it harder for the weaker party to bounce back |
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Term
| How many minor parties in all of American history have carried even a single state in a presidential election? |
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Definition
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Strongest vote-getter of any minor party in the part quarter century. Wants government to involve itself only in national defense and criminal law and to turn over all other programs, from Social Security to education, to private efforts. |
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Term
|
Definition
| shift the balance in an important race. |
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Term
|
Definition
| Ideology, Origins, and Purposes |
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Term
|
Definition
| When voters consider alternatives to the major parties, independent candidates will continue to have advantages over those who try to form fully elaborated third parties. |
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Term
| Will the 2 party system continue? |
|
Definition
| It is secure in the USA, 3rd parties are not gaining ground. Candidates other than R’s and D’s must still jump substantial hurdles to get on state ballots and satisfy a patchwork of different state laws to qualify for the ballot nationwide. |
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Term
| How can 3rd parties receive public funding for their campaign? |
|
Definition
| Win at least 5 % of the popular vote. |
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Term
| Incumbents in safe districts face more of a threat from |
|
Definition
| within their own party, in the primary election, than from the other party. |
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Term
|
Definition
| the party committees and volunteers who work at all the levels at which Americans elect public officials: precincts, townships, wards, cities, counties, congressional districts, states, and the federal government. |
|
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Term
|
Definition
| the organization is run by a relatively small number of leaders and activists with little or no broader public participation. They focus mainly on electing party candidates rather than on issues, thus the party becomes active mainly during campaigns. |
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Term
| The cadre party, then, is a |
|
Definition
| coalition of people and interests brought together temporarily to win elections, only to shrink to a smaller core once the elections are over |
|
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Term
|
Definition
| highly participatory organization in which all 3 parts of the party are closely intertwined. Year round activity and due-paying members. It can exercise much greater control over the party in government. |
|
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Term
| major American parties can be considered __________ parties |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The major parties concentrate on electing candidates more than on... |
|
Definition
| educating voters on issues |
|
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Term
|
Definition
| During the late 1800s and early 1900s, local parties were often described as machines, with the power to control city governments and mobilize vast armies of activists. |
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Term
| What difference does it make if a party organization is vibrant or weak? |
|
Definition
| In many ways, the party organization is the foundation of a political party. It gives the party a way to endure, despite a changing cast of candidates and elected officeholders. Without this organization, a party becomes only an unstable alliance of convenience among candidates, and between candidates and groups of voters |
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Term
| Party organizational strength |
|
Definition
| Stronger parties would have larger budgets and more full-time, paid staff members. A strong party would work effectively to register voters, tell them about party candidates, and get them to the polls on Election Day. |
|
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Term
| American’s traditional suspicion of political parties has led most states |
|
Definition
| to pass large numbers of laws intended to control their party organizations. |
|
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Term
| Federal courts have frequently stepped in to protect citizens’.... |
|
Definition
| voting rights, to keep the states from unreasonably limiting 3rd party and independent canddiates’ ballot access, and to acknowledge the parties’ right to control their internal affairs |
|
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Term
| Local Party Committees- grassroots |
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Definition
| The county is the main unit of local party organization in most states, because so many important local officials are elected at the county level, and usually in partisan elections: sheriffs, prosecutors, county attorneys, judges, commissioners and council members, county clerks, treasurers, assessors, auditors, surveyors, coroners, and more... |
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Term
|
Definition
| In most states, counties are divided into smaller units called precincts. Each precinct (town, ward) in theory has a party leader - a committeeman - to conduct the party’s activities in that area |
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Term
| Local committee positions, in short, |
|
Definition
| are not normally in great demand, especially in the weaker party in an area. |
|
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Term
| What do precinct and county party leaders do? |
|
Definition
Register new voters
Go door-to-door to tell potential supporters about the party’s candidates
and getting voters to the polls (GOTV) |
|
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Term
|
Definition
| at the state level, the party organization is usually called the state central committee. The state parties typically help to recruit candidates for statewide offices and state legislative seats, assist in training them , and raise money to support their campaigns. |
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Term
| State law usually gives party central committees a number of other important powers: |
|
Definition
| the responsibility for calling and organizing party conventions, drafting party platforms, supervising the spending of party campaign funds, and selecting the party’s presidential electors, representatives to the national committee, and some of the national convention delegates and alternates. |
|
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Term
| 3 important conclusions that state law creates for the state and local parties (State Central Committees) |
|
Definition
First, the levels of party organization have been set up to correspond to the voting districts in which citizens choose public officials in that state, and the main responsibility of these organizations under state law is to contest elections.
Second, the laws indicate that state legislators are ambivalent about what constitutes a party organization.
Finally, the relationships among these state and local party organizations are not those of a hierarchy, instead the parties were best described as “a system of layers of organization" |
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| Party organizations remain... |
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| fairly decentralized and rooted in local politics, even in the face of recent trends toward stronger state and national committees. |
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| was a disciplined organization that controlled the nominations to elective office. It relied on material incentives - giving out jobs and favors - to build support among voters. Above all, it controlled the government in a city or county. |
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| machines have completely disappeared. |
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| How the Party Machines Developed |
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| In the late 1800s, large numbers of the immigrants arriving in major American cities had urgent economic and social needs. Party leaders in many of these cities saw the opportunity for a mutually profitable exchange. If the party could register these new arrivals to vote, their votes could put the party in power. In return, the party would then control the many resources that the government had available and give the new voters the help they needed so desperately. |
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| jobs awarded on the basic of party loyalty rather than other qualifications. By giving patronage jobs to party supporters, the party’s leaders could be assured that city workers would remain loyal to the machine and would work to help it win elections by delivering not only their own votes but those of their family, friends, and neighbors as well |
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| The classic urban machine, then, was not just a party organization but also an |
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| “informal government,” a social service agency, and a ladder for upward social and economic mobility. |
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| American machine had little or no concern with __________ |
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| Machines were capable of creating a “designer electorate” by using force and intimidation to keep their opponents from voting. |
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| Local Parties in the 1970s |
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| Researchers found that most county organizations were headed by a volunteer party chair and executive committee; almost none received salaries for their efforts, and only a few had a paid staff to assist them. Not many of these local party leaders had even the most basic forms of organizational support, such as a regular budget, a year-round office, or a listing in the phone book. |
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| Local Parties today: Richer and More Active |
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| Most of these county parties organize campaign activities, run GOTC drives, arrange fund-raising events, donate money to candidates, send out mailings, call voters to urge them to support the party ticket, and distribute yard signs; and again, more local parties report conducting these activities now than they did in 1980. |
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| What account for the growing strength of the county parties? |
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| Local party leaders in many areas of the country have recently stepped u their efforts regarding absentee and early voting. Large numbers of registered voters can now vote by mail or in person before Election Day |
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| State parties have been the... |
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| poor relations of American party politics. In most states, most of the time, the state committee was traditionally the weak link in the party organization. In recent years, however, state parties have grown in importance. |
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| State party organizations were traditionally weak for several reasons: |
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They began as loose federations of semi-independent local party chairs. These local parties within a state differed from one another in many ways: rural/urban, regional, ethnic, and religious differences.
Progressive reforms in the early 1900s also weakened the state party rganizations. |
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| limited the influence of state parties on campaigns for state offices. Candidates could win party nominations in primary elections without party organization support, raise money for their own campaigns, and thus, run them without party help. |
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| Many state party organizations were described as “__________________” in the 1940s and 1950s |
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| Since the 1960s, however, state parties began to institutionalize - |
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| to become enduring, specialized, well-bounded organizations. Full-time leaders and a stable location are vital to the development of parties as organizations. |
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| By 2000, according to two research studies, almost all of the state parties surveyed raised money at... |
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| events and by direct mail. |
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| National party committees played an important role by... |
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| transferring increasing amounts to the state parties and candidates. |
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| To run a competitive campaign, state legislatures and statewide candidates need consultants, voter lists, and computers, and they turn to the state party organizations to provide these services. |
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| Republican state organizations are stronger than their Democratic counterparts. The Republican parties surveyed by Aldrich had much larger budgets and bugger and more specialized staffs. |
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| Labor unions, especially teachers’ and government employees’ unions, have worked closely with their state Democratic Party organizations to provide money, volunteers, and other services to party candidates. Because of the close association between parties and these allied groups, it is possible to think of the parties as networks of organizations, which include the interest groups, consulting firms, and “think tanks” that offer their resources and expertise to a party |
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| Special Case of the South |
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| As the national Democratic Party showed grater concern for the rights of African Americans in the 1960s and 1970d, and particularly as the VRA greatly increased the proportion of African American voters in southern states, conservative southern Democrats became increasingly estranged from their national party. Southern support for Republican candidates grew, first in presidential elections, later in statewide and US Senate races |
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| Republicans have won the governorship of all but one southern state at least once, as well as a majority in at least one house of the state legislature in most of these SOUTHERN states. |
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| National parties, with more energetic leadership and more lavish financial resources than ever before, have infused a great deal of money into the state parties, and at least some of the money had been directed toward helping build the state parties’ organizational capacity. Thus the state parties have come into money. |
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| adopted in the early 1900s undermined party organizations by limiting their control over nominations and general elections as well as their valued patronage resources |
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| ___________ parties have moved to fill at least some of the void created by the decline of the urban machines |
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| Through most of their lives, the American parties have been highly ____________, with power and influence lodged at the grassroots |
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| Even though state and local party organizations are much stronger now, |
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| they probably have less impact on our politics than they once did. They have more competition for the attention of voters, candidates, and the media. |
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| Party organizations rarely __________ the campaigns; instead, their new resources give them more of a change to compete for the attention of those who do - the candidates- at a time when other competitors have become more effective as well. |
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| Despite all the changes in party organization during the past few decades, their most basic structural features have not changed... |
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| The American state and local parties remain CADRE organizations run by a small number of activists; they involve the bulk of their supporters mainly at election time. By the standards of parties in other democratic nations, American state and local party organizations are still weaker... But by the standards of the American politics, the state and local organizations are more visible and active than they have been in some time. |
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| Political socialization Theory |
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| we are socialized to vote in a certain pattern based on party identification |
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| we are born and we have no option.... We are a product of out society in how we view politics |
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| Downs Economic Theory of Democracy |
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| We are all RATIONAL actors on a political stage. Essentially people vote for what’s best in their economic interests. |
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| People are using their backwards information to make political decisions. |
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| Spatial Theories of Voting - Enelow and Hinich |
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| They used a lot of numbers and took a lot of people who were going to vote and had them rank issues from most important to least important to them. They essentially established that taking a look at retrospective voting, they are right. People are voting rationally based on issues. |
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| we are going to vote for leaders who will best represent our country. |
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| Research done by Kinder - Civic Man Model |
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| With the exception of the very politically sophisticated, voters are not voting for their individual best interests, they are voting for NATIONAL BEST INTERESTS. |
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| something we all agree on |
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| Perceptual Screen - Michael Lewis-Beck |
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| It is the perceptual screen that is created by party identification that leads you to interpret whether the economy is good, bad, or indifferent. |
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