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The Case for Strong Parties
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Washington’s Farewell Address
• The common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
• It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another.
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What’s good about parties?
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What’s a strong party?
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APSA Report, 1950
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Positive functions of parties(from APSA)
• Help people hold the government accountable
• Forge compromises among interests
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Ideal party
• Effective and responsible
– Cohesive
– Programmatic
• Effective opposition party
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Didn’t have the ideal model in 1950
• Senate/House/National/State/Local parties all have different leaders and strategies
• National Convention and Committee not policymaking bodies• Ambiguous membership• No coherent ideology or platform• Little unity of those in office
• Why?• Voluntary association• Federalism • Parties particularly ideologically divided in 1950
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Presidential Elections 1876-88
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Presidential Elections 1892-1904
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Presidential Elections 1908-1920
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Presidential Elections 1924-1936
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Presidential Elections 1940-1952
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7 Southern Republicans, 1960
• Mountain Republicans:– Howard Baker, Eastern Tennessee– B. Carroll Reece, Eastern Tennessee– Richard Poff, Southwestern Virginia– Charles Jonas, Blue Ridge North Carolina
• Centers of Northern Migration:– William Cramer, St. Petersburg, FL– Bruce Alger, suburban Dallas– Joel Broyhill, suburban DC, Virginia
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Percent of all votes on which a majority of Democrats vote against a majority of Republicans
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962
House
Senate
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House party unity (percentage of members voting with a majority of their party
on party unity votes)
66
68
70
72
74
76
78
80
82
84
86
1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1962
Republicans
Democrats
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Prescriptions
• A smaller governing body
• Regional conferences and internal democracy
• Stronger national party infrastructure
• Platform more binding
• More party unity and responsibility in Congress
• Closed primaries, no cross filing
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• What’s different today?
• Do we have closer to the responsible party model? In what ways?
• In what ways do we not?