Wherever we find competitive elections -- we find parties.
The major American parties have a pretty complete “lock” on national-level offices --
President, Vice-President, Congress. They select the candidates -- who compete for
these offices. However, in a certain respect the parties are
weak
when it comes to
nominating
candidates.
Presidential primaries and caucuses, every four years -- are a good example. Parties
as
organizations
would seem to have little to do with the outcome. Instead -- a sort of “free-
for-all” among just whoever shows up to take part in the primaries and caucuses.
Parties as organizations -- have given up a great deal of power over nominations to
activists who show up for these primaries and caucuses. “Whoever controls
nominations --
owns
the party.”
Furthermore --
Congress
is organized along party lines.
Party competition provides a way of
resolving conflict
. Elections settle who will hold
office and control the government -- for a limited period of time. Conflict resolution can
also take place
within
parties as well as
between
them. Such “intra-party” conflict
settlement can be especially important for a
diverse
party -- which may now be
characteristic of
both
of the major parties
Slide 6
Another way of thinking about the functions of parties – is to look at the three
aspects
of
parties that have been identified by political scientists.
For this unit, we are concerned
primarily with the party
organization –
“the party itself.”
“The party in the electorate”
refers to the party as it exists in the minds of the voters who identify with it – which we
discussed in our unit on political participation.
“The party in government” refers to those
who hold public office as representatives of one party or another – which we will discuss
in our units on Congress and the presidency.
Since America is given credit for having “invented” parties -- are our parties a
model
for
the rest of the world? We might think so -- but actually the answer is “no.” As a matter of
fact -- American parties are quite
exceptional
.
In fact -- American parties may not seem to amount to very much, especially compared
to the parties in European party systems -- nations to which Americans frequently
compare themselves. Typically, in Europe the parties make much more of an effort to
reach out
to the public. They
invite
public participation, emphasize public information.
Numerous youth groups, auxiliary organizations. Tight chain of command from national
to local level.
By comparison -- there are many things that American parties
lack
. They lack card-
carrying, dues-paying membership -- “membership” in a party for most American simply
means psychological identification with the party, or “party ID.” American parties lack
central organizations and uniformity, and -- arguably -- a coherent, consistent program
and ideology. It can be argued, however -- that they have become more “ideological” in
recent years.
