Chapter Eight
Political Parties, Candidates, and Campaigns:
Defining the Voter’s Choice
Learning Objectives
Having read the chapter, the students should be able to do each of the following:
1. Describe the role of political parties in democratic political systems.
2. Trace the evolution of the American two-party system and discuss the dynamics of
realigning or critical elections.
3. Discuss the role and nature of minor parties in American politics.
4. Explain the endurance of the two-party system and describe the obstacles inherent in the
American electoral system preventing minor parties from successfully competing for
governing power.
5. Compare and contrast the American two-party system and the more common multiparty
system with regard to popular representation and accountability. Discuss the influence of
each system on coalition building and public policy formulation.
6. Offer reasons for the organizational weakness of American political parties and the
decline in their influence as compared to the powerful role of parties in European politics.
7. Describe the effects of the decline of parties and candidate-centered campaigns on
popular influence on government, and list other methods through which segments of the
public exert control over candidate nomination, election, and policy implementation.
8. Discuss the role played by parties, money, and media in today’s candidate-centered
campaigns.
Focus and Main Points
The author investigates America’s two-party system and its role in American politics in this
chapter. The historical development of political parties in the United States is traced, and the role
of minor parties and the reasons for the emergence and persistence of the two-party system are
examined. The author also discusses the effects of this system on policy and coalition
formulation.
The main ideas included in this chapter are as follows:
Throughout most of the nation’s history, political competition has centered on two
parties. This two-party tendency is explained by the nature of America’s electoral system,
political institutions, and political culture. Minor parties exist in the United States but
have been unable to compete successfully for governing power.
To win an electoral majority, each of the two major parties must appeal to a diverse set of
interests; this necessity normally leads them to advocate moderate and somewhat
AP/DE United States Government and Politics – Chapter 8- Mr. Logan’s Class
Chapter 8: Political Parties, Candidates, and Campaigns:
Defining the Voter’s Choice
overlapping policies and to avoid taking detailed positions on controversial issues.
American parties are only likely to present the electorate with starkly different policy a
alternatives during a national crisis.
U.S. party organizations are fragmented and decentralized. The national organization is a
loose alliance of state organizations, which in turn are loose associations of autonomous
local organizations. This reality is due to American federalism and the nation’s diversity,
which have made it difficult for parties to act as instruments of national power.
Unlike other democracies, the ability of American party organizations to control
nominations and election to office is weak.
Candidate-centered campaigns are based on the media and utilize the skills of
professional consultants. Key components in presidential and congressional elections
include money, strategy, and televised advertising.
Chapter Summary
Political parties serve to link the general public with its elected leaders and to organize political
conflict. In the United States, this linkage is provided by a two-party system; only the Democratic
and Republican parties have any chance of winning numeric control of government. The first
political parties were organized by Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson and later evolved
through Andrew Jackson’s grass-roots framework and then Abraham Lincoln’s Republican party
emerged. Since that time, the Democrats and Republicans have monopolized the system,
alternating through victory and defeat.
Most other democracies have a multiparty system. The fact that the United States has only two
major parties is explained by several factors; an electoral system—characterized by single-
member districts—that makes it difficult for third parties to compete for power; each party’s
willingness to accept political leaders of differing views; and a political culture that stresses
compromise and negotiation rather than ideological rigidity. America’s two major parties are also
maintained by laws and customs that support their domination of elections. Minor political
parties (there have been more than a thousand in the nation’s history) have mainly been short-
lived, although they have been responsible for raising issues that have been neglected by major
parties. Minor parties can be classified as single-issue (e.g., the Prohibition Party), ideological
(e.g., the Libertarians), and factional (e.g., Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party in 1912).
A realignment occurs when new and powerful issues emerge and disrupt the normal pattern of
party politics. Realigning, or critical elections, offer voters the opportunity to have a large and
lasting impact on national public policy. In responding to these issues and then by endorsing the
actions of the party that takes power, the electorate helps to establish a new governing philosophy
and its associated policies. A realignment is maintained through the development of loyalties
among first-time voters to the new governing party and its policies. According to the author,
realignments have occurred around the time of the Civil War, during the 1890s, and the Great
Depression of the 1930s. There has not been a realigning election since 1932, and many political
scientists believe that the process of dealignment will continue into the foreseeable future.
AP/DE United States Government and Politics – Chapter 8- Mr. Logan’s Class
Chapter 8: Political Parties, Candidates, and Campaigns:
Defining the Voter’s Choice
Because the United States has only two major political parties, they normally tend to avoid
controversial or extreme political positions. Party leaders typically pursue moderate and
somewhat overlapping policies. Their appeals are designed to win the support of a diverse
electorate with moderate opinions. This form of party competition is reflected in the Democratic
and Republican coalitions. Although the two parties’ coalitions are not identical, they do overlap
significantly; each party includes large numbers of individuals who represent nearly every
significant interest in society. Democrats have traditionally identified with the underdogs of
society while the GOP is usually linked to wealthier citizens and big business. Nonetheless, the
Democratic and Republican parties sometimes do offer sharply contrasting policy alternatives,
particularly in times of political unrest. In recent years, differences have revolved around the
degree of governmental involvement in policy, i.e., higher levels of federal spending versus
power being decentralized back to the states. It is at such times that the public has its best
opportunity to make a decisive difference through its vote.
America’s party organizations are flexible enough to allow diverse interests to coexist within
them; they can also accommodate new ideas and leadership, since they are neither rigid nor
closed. Sometimes, ideological or group fissures occur within each party, such as racial
polarization among Democrats or religious fundamentalism within the GOP. Although American
parties do not represent class-oriented differences as many European parties do, they still
represent the public’s best protection against an unresponsive government.
America’s political parties are relatively weak organizations. They lack control over nominations,
elections, and platforms. Candidates can bypass the party organization and win nomination
through primary elections. Individual candidates control most of the organization and money
necessary to win elections and run largely on personal platforms.
Primary elections are a major reason for the organizational weakness of America’s parties. Once
the parties lost their hold on the nominating process, they became subordinate to candidates.
More generally, the political parties have been undermined by election reforms, some of which
were intended to weaken the parties and others have unintentionally done so. Recently, the state
and national party organizations have expanded their capacity to provide candidates with modern
campaign services and are again playing a prominent role in election campaigns. Nevertheless,
party organizations at all levels have few ways of controlling the candidates who run under their
banner. They assist candidates with campaign technology, workers, and funds, but cannot compel
candidates’ loyalty to organizational goals.
America’s parties are decentralized, fragmented organizations. The relationship among local,
state, and national party organizations is marked by paths of common interest rather than lines of
authority. The national party organization does not control the policies and activities of the state
organizations, and they in turn do not control local organizations. The fragmentation of parties
prevents them from acting as cohesive national organizations. Traditionally, the local
organizations have controlled most of the party’s work force because most elections are
contested at the local level. Local parties, however, vary significantly in their vitality.
American political campaigns, particularly those for higher-level office, are candidate-centered.
Most candidates are self-starters who become adept at the election game. They spend much of
AP/DE United States Government and Politics – Chapter 8- Mr. Logan’s Class
Chapter 8: Political Parties, Candidates, and Campaigns:
Defining the Voter’s Choice
their time raising campaign funds, and they build their personal organizations around hired guns:
pollsters, media producers, and election consultants. Strategy and image-making are key
components of the modern campaign, as is televised political advertising, which accounts for
roughly half of all spending in presidential and congressional races.
Because political party officials in America cannot control their candidates or coordinate their
policies at all levels, they are unable to consistently present the voters with a coherent, detailed
platform for governing. The national electorate as a whole is thus denied a clear choice among
policy alternatives and has difficulty influencing national policy in a predictable and enduring
manner through elections.
Major Concepts
1. political party (p. 242)
2. party-centered politics (p. 242)
3. candidate-centered politics (p. 242)
4. party competition (p. 243)
5. grassroots party (p. 244)
6. party realignment (p. 245)
7. split ticket (p. 247)
8. two-party system (p. 248)
9. multiparty system (p. 248)
10. single-member districts (p. 248)
11. proportional representation (p. 249)
12. party coalition (p. 251)
13. party organizations (p. 256)
14. nomination (p .256)
15. primary election (direct primary) (p. 256)
16. service relationship (p. 261)
17. hard money (p. 262)
18. soft money (p. 262)
19. money chase (p. 265)
20. hired guns (p. 265)
21. packaging (p. 267)
22. air wars (p. 267)
Lecture Outline
This lecture outline closely follows the text in its organization. The instructor can use this outline
as a lecture aid.
The author traces the historical development of political parties in the United States, examining
the role of minor parties and the reasons for the emergence and persistence of the two-party
system. He also discusses the effects of this system on policy and coalition formulation.
AP/DE United States Government and Politics – Chapter 8- Mr. Logan’s Class
Chapter 8: Political Parties, Candidates, and Campaigns:
Defining the Voter’s Choice
In 2004 the Republican Party nominated George W. Bush for President and stood for lower
taxes, stimulating business investment, increasing the level of defense spending, delegating
policy authority to the states, and pursuing the war on terrorism. The Democrats nominated John
Kerry and stood for tax benefits for low-and middle-income families, reproductive freedom for
women, a commitment to multilateralism in international affairs, protection of Social Security,
and pledges to strengthen the nation’s educational, environmental, and health systems. America’s
political parties provide policy and leadership choices. While American parties do not have such
a clear set of policy choices as class-based European parties, they can offer clear choices at
certain times or with specific issues. The chapter’s main points are as follows:
Political competition in the United States has centered on two parties, a pattern that is
explained by the nature of America’s electoral system, political institutions, and political
culture.
To win an electoral majority, candidates of the two major parties must appeal to a diverse
set of interests, which typically leads them to advocate moderate and somewhat
overlapping policies.
U.S. party organizations are decentralized and fragmented.
The ability of America’s party organizations to control nominations and election to office
is weak.
Candidate-centered campaigns are based on the media and utilize the skills of
professional consultants.
I. Party Competition and Majority Rule: The History of U.S. Parties
Political parties developed as a spontaneous response to the need to organize for common
purposes.
The first parties originated from the rivalry between those who favored a strong national
government that defended commercial interests and the supporters of state’s rights and
small landholders (Hamilton’s Federalist Party versus Jefferson’s Republicans).
The emergence of the grass-roots political party during the Jacksonian era strengthened
the power of popular majorities.
Dissension over the issue of slavery, resulting in the Civil War, ended nearly three
decades of competition between the Whigs and the Democrats.
AP/DE United States Government and Politics – Chapter 8- Mr. Logan’s Class
Chapter 8: Political Parties, Candidates, and Campaigns:
Defining the Voter’s Choice
Following the political and geographical realignment caused by the Civil War, the
Democratic and Republican parties emerged as the new competitors. Their political
rivalry has since dominated the U.S. electoral system, though its nature has altered over
time.
A realigning election is the rare event when the electorate, in response to some overwhelming
issue disrupting the established order (e.g., the Civil War, the Great Depression), forces
government to take a new policy direction.
Realignments took place during the Civil War, the 1890s, and the Great Depression of the
1930s.
An important and lasting impact of a realigning election is that the distribution of party
identification in the electorate undergoes significant and enduring change.
Realignments strengthen party voting along new social cleavages and shapes new party
coalitions.
The major political parties have a weaker hold on voters than they did in the past. Split
ticket voting has replaced straight ticket voting as the norm. Many believe that the two
parties are in a continuing era of dealignment.
II. Electoral and Party Systems
Minor parties have existed throughout the history of American two-party competition.
Few minor parties have had a significant effect on American politics or the two-party
system.
Minor parties that do attract a strong following force the major parties to address
otherwise neglected issues. The major parties also devise electoral rules and campaign
finance laws which benefit them and make it difficult for minor parties to compete with
them in an equitable manner.
Election victory based on a plurality of the votes in single-member districts reinforces the
two-party tendency in American politics and hurts the chances of minor parties. This is
different from the system of proportional representation in European democracies that
promotes a multi-party system.
AP/DE United States Government and Politics – Chapter 8- Mr. Logan’s Class
Chapter 8: Political Parties, Candidates, and Campaigns:
Defining the Voter’s Choice
A U.S. president can be elected without a popular vote majority and only a major party
has a chance of gaining the office. In a system requiring a majority, minor parties can
bargain for power in the runoff election.
Minor parties can be divided into three categories:
Single issue parties form around one issue of overriding concern to their supporters (e.g.,
Right-to-Life, Prohibition).
Ideological parties form around an ideological commitment or belief in a broad and
radical philosophical position (e.g., Socialist Workers, Libertarian). The Populist party of
the 1890s was one of the strongest ideological parties in American history.
Irreconcilable conflict within the major parties produces factional parties who split from
the major party. Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose party split Republicans in 1912 and in
1948 and 1968 the Democrats had southern factions leave and form the States’ Rights
party and the American Independent party, respectively.
Independent candidates have appeared occasionally. One of the more successful third party
candidates was Ross Perot in 1992.
III. Party Organizations
Unlike their European counterparts, party activity in the United States primarily centers on
election campaigns. This is an activity, however, over which the American parties exercise
limited control.
Over the years, authority over party nominations has shifted from parties to the voters.
Until the early twentieth century, nominations were controlled by the parties, and a
prospective candidate’s loyalty was essential to solicit party support.
The power of the parties declined with the introduction of primary elections (direct
primaries) as the system of selection for party nominations.
In Europe, primaries are not used to determine party nominations. They use the system of
party-designated nominees and control their own affairs, unregulated by state legislation.
Similarly, control of election campaigns has shifted from parties to candidates.
AP/DE United States Government and Politics – Chapter 8- Mr. Logan’s Class
Chapter 8: Political Parties, Candidates, and Campaigns:
Defining the Voter’s Choice
Patronage jobs were traditionally controlled by the party. Although such jobs still exist,
they are now controlled mainly by individual politicians rather than party organizations.
Old politics emphasized party rallies and party control. New politics emphasizes effective
use of the media, substantial amounts of money, and candidate control.
In Europe, campaign funding continues to be handled by the political parties. Free
television time is allotted directly to the parties, which control its use and content.
In the course of time, national political parties have also lost control of their national platforms to
the candidate with the majority of the delegates in the presidential primaries and caucuses.
Traditionally, delegates were members of the party’s leadership who developed a
platform that served as a unifying statement of common purpose.
Today, both the platform and the vice presidential selection are essentially controlled by
the nominee. The platform, which was never actually binding on congressional
candidates, has become even less relevant to candidates for the House and Senate.
In Europe, party candidates not only campaign on the party platform, but are expected to
support its provisions when in office.
American political parties have declined in importance at the local, state, and national levels.
Party organizations in the cities were once party machines that could guarantee electoral
victory. In the modern era, most local parties have steadily weakened.
State party organizations have recently broadened their operations, and this expansion has
largely resulted from advances in communication technology.
National party organizations concentrate on elections of national significance and run the
presidential conventions every four years.
State and national party organizations are presently concerned with assisting candidate-
oriented campaigns, awarding the parties a more important service role without
necessarily increasing their power.
AP/DE United States Government and Politics – Chapter 8- Mr. Logan’s Class
Chapter 8: Political Parties, Candidates, and Campaigns:
Defining the Voter’s Choice
IV. The Candidate-Centered Campaign
Candidate-centered campaigns have been characterized as the election game. The game has
several elements.
The game begins with lots of money. The money chase is relentless. Incumbents have the
advantage in rasing money.
New politics is based on the mass media and requires an organizational structure of hired
guns including campaign consultants, pollsters, media producers, and fund raising
specialists.
Packaging the candidate is the process of recasting a candidate’s record into an appealing
image.
The political battleground is the mass media. Air wars are the candidates’ use of
television ads. Candidates try to put a positive spin on their news coverage. Television
ads are the main reason for the high cost of campaigns.
The political party plays a service role for the campaigns using new technology and
providing a fund raising capability. Parties play an important role in campaign finance.
Hard money is regulated and goes directly to the candidate. Soft, or unregulated money,
went to the party for party activities but was often filtered to the candidate. Due to the
Enron scandal of 2001-2002, in particular, Congress enacted a law in 2002 that prohibited
the national parties from raising or spending soft money. The law also bans the state
parties from spending soft money in federal elections. These restrictions were upheld by
the Supreme Court in 2003.
V. Parties, Candidates, and the Public’s Influence
There are advantages and disadvantages to candidate-centered campaigns.
Advantages include contributing flexibility and new blood to electoral politics and
encouraging national office-holders to be responsive to local interests.
Disadvantages include diminished office-holder accountability, the inordinate influence
of special interests, a tendency for campaigns to degenerate into meaningless
showmanship, a blurring of the connection between electing and governing, and making
it difficult for voters to act in unison.
AP/DE United States Government and Politics – Chapter 8- Mr. Logan’s Class
Chapter 8: Political Parties, Candidates, and Campaigns:
Defining the Voter’s Choice
Candidate-centered campaigns strengthen the relationship between the voters and their
individual representative while, at the same time, weakening the relationship between the
full electorate and its representative institutions.
Complementary Lecture Topics
Below are suggestions for lectures or lecture topics that will complement the text. In general,
these topics assume that students will have read the chapter beforehand.
Ralph Nader attacked the Republican and Democratic parties in 2000 and 2004 by
arguing that there are no substantive differences between them. To what extent is this
true, especially when compared with the party systems of other democracies? How much
difference would it make if the United States had a major socialist party that could
compete for control of Congress and the presidency?
Independent candidates face a variety of barriers to getting elected to the presidency.
Does an independent candidate have any real chance for election? Would it be desirable
for independent candidates to have a real chance of winning the presidency?
Would the end of democracy be better served if our system of elections and
representation were altered so as to allow minor parties a better opportunity to compete
for governing power? What are the advantages and disadvantages of proportional
representation, as compared to our electoral system of single-member districts and
plurality voting?
Government officials fear the loss of popular support, which creates a reluctance to take
unpopular stands. However, a serious crisis can produce a realigning election in which the
incumbents are held responsible for the problems facing the nation. However, if the
government attempted to avert an impending crisis, any solution would necessitate
unpopular measures opposed by the public, making it a nearly impossible task for elected
leaders. Does this situation suggest that the long-term ebb and flow of partisan support is
largely beyond the control of leaders?
American party organizations are presently weaker and more fragmented than was once
the case. Furthermore, Americans have never felt completely comfortable with parties.
Are these two tendencies related? If so, in what way?
Candidate freedom from parties has resulted in candidate-centered elections. Why has
this development resulted in a weakening of the public’s influence on policy?
AP/DE United States Government and Politics – Chapter 8- Mr. Logan’s Class
Chapter 8: Political Parties, Candidates, and Campaigns:
Defining the Voter’s Choice
Can elected officials be truly accountable in the absence of relatively cohesive parties?
Why or why not? Can American parties become more cohesive, and what impact would
this have on public policy?
The reforms that have reduced the role of parties in both candidate selection and public
policy formulation have also enhanced the influence of money, television, and interest
groups over both elections and national policy. What reforms could be enacted to achieve
greater accountability of elected officials to the voters for the content and direction of the
nation’s public policy?
AP/DE United States Government and Politics – Chapter 8- Mr. Logan’s Class