chapter 16 (mhs)

Political Parties

Chapter 16

Why It’s Important

• Political parties play a large role in the decisions made by government. This chapter will help you understand function political parties. It may also help you identify your own political beliefs.

Key Terms

• Political party• Theocracy• Ideologies• Coalition government• Third party• Single-member district• Proportional

representation

What are they?

• A political party is a group of people with broad common interests who organize to win elections, control government, and thereby influence government policies.

One Party Systems

• The party IS the government.

• The only oppositions is the party itself.

• Counties with one party systems usually have an authoritative government.

QuestionsWhat counties do you think have a one party system? What are the

pros/cons?

Multiparty Systems

• This is the most common system.

• These parties are going to have different ideologies

• Most of the time, one party never can control all of government.

• Many times you will see them form a coalition government

• Ideologies-basic beliefs about government.

• Coalition Government-combine forces to obtain a majority

QuestionsHow many parties does the U.S. have? What are the pros/cons of

this system?

Two Party System

• Only about a dozen nations have systems in which two parties have compete power.

• The U.S. is one!

• Pros/Cons?

HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PARTY

The First “Parties”

Federalist • Strong central government• Bill of Rights was not

necessary• Large farmers, merchants,

artisansAlexander Hamilton, George Washington James Madison

Anti-Federalist• Strong state governments• Bill of Rights was essential• Small farmers, often from

rural areas.Thomas Paine Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams

Democratic

Republicans

SplitDemocra

ts and the

Whigs

SplitNorth and

South

Whigs turned

into Republica

ns

The Republicans

After the Civil War the Republicans dominated the politics of America from 1860 to 1932

Why?

The Democrats

The Democrats have dominated in the 20th century.

What problems were happening at this time?

Third Parties

• Despite the dominance of the two major parties we still have major third parties in America.

ExamplesGreen Party

Libertarian PartyTea Party

Impact of Third Parties

• Many of the ideas that are popular with third party candidates are unpopular or hotly debated. Ironically, the major parties usually steals these ideas later!

Ralph Nader

It’s a Hard Knock Life!

• Single-member districts- No matter how many candidates compete in a district, only one will win.

• Finance is a major problem.

• Most popular way to elect candidates.

PARTY ORGANIZATIONSection Two

Party Membership

• Many state citizens must declare their party preference when they register to vote

• However, a voter may declare that he or she is an independent

Organization

1. Local

2. State

3. National

Local Party Organization

• The basic local unit is the precincts, a voting district raging in size from just a few voters to more than 1,000.

• Precinct Captain- organizes party workers to distribute information about the party and its candidates an to attract voters to the polls.

QuestionWhy are parties at the local level viewed as

being the most effective at reaching

people?

State Party Organization

• Composed largely of representatives from the party’s county organizations. This is called the state central committee.

• Main function of the state central committee is to help elect the party’s candidates for state government

National Party Organization

National Convention • Gathering of party

members and local and state party officials.

• Meets every four years• Nominees the president

and vice president

National Committee• Large group composed

mainly of representative from the fifty state organizations, runs the party.

• Raise the funds!!!

Function of Political Parties• Recruiting Candidates– Seek political men and

women to run for office.

• Educating the Public– TV, Radio, Pamphlets,

and Websites.• Operating the

Government– Leaders work together

to pass important legislation.

• Dispensing Patronage

Patronage- favors given to reward party loyalty, to their members.

Where US Politics Came From

How Candidates are Selected

1. Caucuses

2. Nominating convention

3. Primary election

4. Petition

• Caucuses-private meetings of party leaders• Require openness with the selection process • Nineteen states use caucuses today• What is the problem with this way of picking candidates?

Nominating Conventions- an official public meeting of a party to choose candidates for office.

Local, state, and nation party organizations are all involved.

This method was popular in the 1900s. It led to the development of bosses

Primary Elections

Closed • Only members of a political

party can vote. • Only Democrats pick

democratic candidates for office, and only Republicans can vote in the Republican primary

• Missouri has this

Open• All voters may participate,

even if they do not belong to the party, but they can vote in only one party’s primary.

DOES THE CANDIDATE HAVE TO RECEIVE A MAJORITY TO WIN?

Question

A: No, this is called Plurality

Runoff Primary

• If there is no clear winner a runoff primary is held. The two candidates who received the most votes in the first primary come together and whomever wins becomes the parties candidate.

Petition A Candidate must get a specific number of voters to sign to be placed on the ballot.

Presidential Nominations

American Elections are more like this

Presidential Primaries operate under a wide variety of state laws.

1. They may be delegate selection process or a presidential preference poll, or both2. Either the candidate who wins the primary gets all the state’s convention delegates or each candidate gets delegates based on how many popular votes he or she receives3. Delegates selected on the basis of e popular vote may required to support a certain candidate at the national convention

Many states were originally winner take allThe Democrats now use proportional Representation.Delegates must represent the candidates in proportion to the popular vote each receives in the primary once certain threshold is reached.

The National Convention

Long before its convention meets, the national committee of each major party chooses the site and dates

Next Republican is in Cleveland in June or July of 2016.

The Democratic National Committee’s list of candidates for cities to host the convention to the following five finalists• Birmingham• Columbus• New York City• Philadelphia• Phoenix

What do you look for in a location?

Each party has a rules committee that governs the way its convention is run. The committee proposes rules for convention

procedure and sets the convention’s order of business. This agenda is usually just accepted, but battles can ensue.

Elections and Voting

A strong organization is essential to running a presidential campaign. Heading the organization is a campaign manager, who is responsible for overall strategy and planning.

The most important communication tool for a presidential candidate is the television. Television creates a nominee’s image, or mental picture, that voters have of a candidate is extremely important. Televised debates usually come late in the campaign and have a big impact on votes who are undecided.

Do you think the Internet is more important than TV?

Campaign Funding

Private Funding

• In every election, the bulk of campaign funding comes from private sources, such as individual citizens, party organizations, corporations, and special interest groups. Today, political action committees are popular.

Issue Advocacy Advertising

• Urges voters to support a particular position on issues such as gun control or health care. These ads do not ask people to vote for or against a candidate, but they do often contain a candidates name or image.

Soft money • Money raised by a political

party for general purposes, not designated for the candidate.

Suffrage: Expanding Voting Rights

Chapter 17 Section 2

Introduction

• The right to vote, or suffrage, is the foundation of American democracy.

• Many groups of people have had to fight for this fundamental right.

Early Limitations on Voting

African Americans, women, and white men that didn’t own property were denied the right.

1. Woman Suffrage2. African American

Suffrage3. Twenty-sixth

Amendment

The fight for woman suffrage dates from the mid-1880s. Women suffrage groups grew in number and effectiveness in the last half of the century.

The work of thousands of women and men made the nineteenth amendment possible.

• The Fifteenth Amendment– Former slaves the right

to vote

• Grandfather Clause– Only voters whose

grandfather had voted before 1867 were eligible.

• Literacy Test– Pass a reading test

before voting.

• Poll Tax– Pay money to vote.

Voting Rights Acts

• Abolished poll tax and literacy tests.

• Increases opportunity to vote for African Americans and others

• It is in trouble!

The right for 18 year olds to vote.

If they can be drafted and die for the country, than they should be able to vote.

Twenty-Sixth Amendment

Qualifications

• A citizen of the U.S.

• Be 18 or older

• Have no felonies and/or not legal insane.

Registering to Vote

• Requirements are set by state law and fifer from state to state.

• About 15 to 30 days before you vote.

• Basic information is needed.

Voting Procedures

Precinct• A voting district

• 200 to 1,000 votes in each

Polling Place

Place you go and vote.

What Will the Ballot Look Like?

Office group ballot• Lists the candidates of all

parties together by the office for which they are running.

Ticket-splitting• Voting for candidates from

different parties for different offices.

Party-column ballot• Lists each party’s

candidates in a column under the party’s name.

Will My Vote Be a Secret

• Yes, known as an Australian Ballot– Printed at the

government expense– Given out only at the

polls– Marked in secret– Collected by the

government

What is an Absentee Ballot

• Allows you to vote without going to the polls on Election Day.

• The Deadline is different in every state.

• Ex. On vacation, military, medical problems.

Influences on Voters

1. Personal Background of the voters

2. Degree of voter loyalty to one of the political parties.

3. Issues of the campaign

4. Voters’ image of the candidates

5. Propaganda

How may they vote differently?

Age68 year old vs 23 year old on healthcare

EducationCollege vs high school on job creation

ReligionJew vs Christian on Israel

Humans are not black and white, they are very grey. A Cross-pressured voter is one who is caught between conflicting elements in his or her own life such as religion, income level, or peer group

Loyalty to Political Parties

Republicans and Democrat love their party, but many people vary in their degree of passion for their chosen organization.

Straight-Party Ticket- they select the candidates of their party only.

Propaganda Techniques

Used in Political Ads

Testimonial

• Having a celebrity or famous expert support you

• Similar to why Nike and Gatorade have celebrities in their ads

• The opinion of celebrities is very powerful: “If Obama is good enough for Oprah, he is good enough for me!”

Bandwagon

• Showing a bunch of people supporting your candidate

• Similar to “Testimonial” except it relies on large numbers of “everyday people” as opposed to a single celebrity

• Effective because people would rather not vote for the loser: “If everyone else is voting for Obama, I probably should too”

Plain Folks

• Having the candidate meet with the “common man” to show how easily he/she relates to the “average person”

• Examples include having candidate tour an auto plant and meeting the workers, as well as footage of the candidate talking with people at a local diner

• This is important because many candidates are wealthy and ivy league educated and have to make a conscious effort to not be seen as “elitist” or “out of touch”

Transfer

• Using patriotic, feel-good imagery in the hopes that people will associate those images with the candidate

• Examples- an American flag or amber waves of grain in the background as the candidate talks

Spin

• Explaining a statistic or event in such a way as to benefit your candidate

• Example- “The fact that Obama made a comment about ‘spreading the wealth’ is proof that he is a Socialist who wants to redistribute all income”

Card-stacking

• Only talking about the positive accomplishments of a candidate and conveniently avoiding the negative

• Sort of like a positive version of “Spin”

Labeling

• Calling the opponent something negative in the hopes that the label sticks

• Ex- Obama always talked about the “Bush-McCain” policies in the hopes that people would associate McCain with Bush (who was unpopular at the time),

• Other labels include “Soft on crime”, “Un-American”, or “Flip-flopper”

2008 “Fundamentals”

1. Spin because they take a single general statement McCain made and spin it to make it appear he has no understanding of economics at all

2. Labeling because they showed McCain arm in arm with Bush at the end, implying that McCain was a “Bush Republican”

2008 “Original Mavericks”

• Cardstacking because it only mentions the good things McCain and Palin have done

• Labeling, though in a positive sense, as they labeled themselves “Mavericks” in the hopes that people will view them as being willing to change Washington for the better

2008 “Country I Love”

• Plain Folks because he gave up a job on Wall Street to help struggling people, and he was shown talking to average folks around a kitchen table and talking to a soldier

2004 “Windsurfing”

• Labeling because they imply Kerry is a “Flip-flopper” who changes the way he votes based upon public opinion polls

1988 “Willie Horton (Weekend Passes)”• Labeling- It was implied that Dukakis was “soft

on crime” because he allowed Willie Horton passes out of prison

1984 “Prouder, Stronger, Better”

• Cardstacking because talked about all the good Reagan’s first term had led to

• Transfer because it had a ton of American flags and other wholesome images (like weddings and folks moving into houses) that people can associate with Reagan

1964 “Peace Little Girl (Daisy)”

• Labeling because it implies that Goldwater is soft on national security (so much so that it could lead to a nuclear attack!)

1952 “Ike for President”

• Bandwagon because it shows several people (and a variety of people at that) support Eisenhower

In what ways could third parties have a positive effect on the major political parties?

Key Ideas• Bring new perspectives to certain issues.

• Bring up the long standing “war” between Democrats and Republicans

What advantages does an open primary have over a closed primary? What are some drawbacks of peon primaries?

Closed Primary:

Pros -- prevents the other party from coming in and messing with the primary (democrats going into the republican primary to make sure the worst candidate wins)

Cons -- prevents independents from voting

Open Primary

Pros -- allows more people to vote because it opens it up to independents

Cons -- allows other party to come in and can change the outcome

Explain why nominating conventions are a less democratic way of choosing a party’s candidates than

are primary elections

Key Ideas

How does a nominating conventions work?

How does a primary election work?

In a basic sense, the more people that are allowed to make a decision the more democratic it is believed to be.

How and why do education, income, and attitudes about government influence who will vote and who will

not?Key IdeasEducation- They more education you have, the better you can understand the issues.

Income- Does the amount of zeroes on your pay check affect they way you vote?

Attitudes- If you think all politicians are terrible, what is the like hood you are going to vote?

Explain the effects that the Voting Rights Acts have had on African Americans’ participation in government.

Key Ideas

• Understand what it was like BEFORE the Acts

• Remember the video I showed. This will help you understand how the Voting Rights Acts works today.