DOWNLOAD PDF CHANGING LEGAL STATUS OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES

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1 Chapter 1 : American political system The changing legal status of political parties in the United States. American legal and constitutional history. Political parties > United States. A political party offers candidates for public office. It sets out positions on issues that may range from war and taxes to how children should be educated. When people in a democracy disagree about what the government should do, voters express their opinions by voting for the candidates that most closely reflect their views. Political parties may be large or small, national or local. Large political parties generally have millions of members and supporters. In democratic election campaigns, parties compete freely for votes. Such competition is one of the hallmarks of democracy. How Parties Began Political parties as we know them did not begin to develop until the late s. The ancient Greeks, who were pioneers in developing democracy, had no organized political parties in the modern sense. The senate of the ancient Romans had two groups that represented people with different interests â the Patricians and the Plebeians. The Patricians represented noble families. The Plebeians represented the wealthy merchants and the middle class. Although these two groups often mingled, at times they voted as factions, or parties, on particular issues that were important to the groups they represented. For many centuries after the fall of Rome AD, the people of Europe had little voice in politics. Thus there were no true political parties â only factions that supported one noble family or another. Political parties developed as representative assemblies gained power. In England, this change began after what was called the Popish Plot of But to King Charles II, Parliament seemed to be challenging royal authority, and he struck back by dissolving Parliament. Those who urged the king to call a new Parliament were called Petitioners. Before long the two factions took on other names. Petitioners were called Whigs. These old names took on new meanings. The basic difference between Whigs and Tories in the s was their view of what government should do and how strong it should be. Tories wanted rule by a strong king. Whigs wanted ordinary people to have more rights and gain more control of their government. In time, as Parliament took greater control, the Whigs and Tories developed into organized parties. Political Parties in the United States The leaders of the American Revolution did not like the idea of parties and political battles between parties. Upon his retirement from public life in, George Washington warned Americans against "faction" parties. James Madison thought parties were probably necessary, although he did not entirely approve of them. Alexander Hamilton thought that faction was a vice to be guarded against at all times. Thomas Jefferson declared in, "If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all. Parties Hamilton and other leaders who wanted a strong central government banded together to put over their policies. In they began calling themselves the Federalists. This was the first United States political party. In, anti-federalists gathered around Jefferson. Northern businessmen, bankers, and merchants supported the Federalists. They believed in a strong national or federal government. The Democratic-Republican Party drew its followers from planters, small farmers, and artisans. These people wanted government to leave them alone as much as possible. In foreign affairs the Federalists generally leaned toward England, while the Democratic-Republicans sympathized with Revolutionary France. Early leaders such as John Adams, who succeeded George Washington as president, had Federalist sympathies. But the Federalists lost control of the government to Jefferson and his party in The Federalists lingered on as a minority party, especially in New England, for 20 years. By, American political life was being influenced by sharp differences of opinion between sections of the country. In time, these quarrels led to the Civil War. The slave-holding planters of the South, the frontier farmers of the West, and the manufacturing and banking industries based in the North each wanted the government to follow a different course of action. His party had great support in the South and West. Between and, Whigs gave Democrats strong opposition. By the issue of slavery overshadowed all political debate. If a state government was in conflict with the national government, which government had the final authority? Northern Abolitionists â people who wanted to abolish slavery â left the Whig party. The Whigs also lost Page 1

2 voters to the "Know-Nothing" Party, a new party that violently opposed Roman Catholics and foreigners. The Whig Party began to go to pieces. Extremists among them believed that a state had a right to secede leave the Union if the national government tried to interfere with slavery. The Republicans ran their first presidential candidate, John C. Strong antislavery feeling helped Republicans capture the presidency for Abraham Lincoln. In the Southern states seceded and the Civil War began. For many years the Republicans were the major party. They favored business interests and high tariffs taxes on imports. The Democrats supported free trade. They attracted farmers and the immigrants who poured into the country between the Civil War and the turn of the century. The two major parties were not so deeply divided again until the s. At that time the Great Depression struck the country. The presidential election of brought in Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal programs. Roosevelt Democrats thought that the federal government must actively help people who had been hurt by the Depression. Under the New Deal the government passed economic relief measures, social security, laws helping unions, and other bills. Republicans thought the government was taking too much power and moving the country toward a welfare state. They fought against governmental interference with business. Today both parties agree in general on social security, unemployment insurance, basic foreign policy, and civil rights. The issues on which they disagree often are not goals so much as means: In general, Republicans tend to oppose government programs as solutions to national problems. Democrats tend to believe that government can and should act for good. Third Parties The United States has a two-party system. However, nothing in the Constitution requires two parties. The Democrats and Republicans have alternated in power since before the Civil War mainly because they have put forward candidates and policies that appeal to most Americans. But minor parties, or third parties, have often played a role in politics. Third parties focus attention on issues and ideas. Sometimes they draw enough support to affect the outcome of elections. New political parties helped focus attention on these issues. In, for example, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman to run for president. In a disagreement among Republicans produced a splinter group called the Progressive, or "Bull Moose," Party. But the Republican split only helped the Democratic candidate, Woodrow Wilson, win the election. The Progressives opposed big business monopolies and favored the interests of farmers and workers. The Socialist Party favored wider social welfare measures. It reached its greatest strength in the s, during the Great Depression. It was a factor in the presidential election of The Libertarian Party, formed in the s, stressed individual rights. The s saw the growth of the Reform Party, formed by Texas businessman H. And the Green Party has formed as an outgrowth of the environmental movement. Like earlier third parties, these groups have helped focus attention on important social and political issues. Parties Work The major U. The precinct is the smallest local division. The parties are run by county and state committees. Committee members may be elected at primaries, chosen at state conventions, or appointed by party officers. The two major parties also have national committees, made up of one man and one woman from each of the 50 states and U. Every four years, parties hold national conventions. Delegates are chosen in primaries, by state conventions, or at gatherings called precinct caucuses. These delegates gather at the conventions to nominate a presidential and a vice-presidential candidate. Page 2

3 Chapter 2 : The changing legal status of political parties in the United States in SearchWorks catalog Get this from a library! The changing legal status of political parties in the United States. [John W Epperson]. Conclusion INTRODUCTION The United States is - by size of electorate - the second largest democracy on the globe India is the largest and Indonesia comes third and the most powerful nation on earth, politically, economically and militarily, but its political system is in many important respects unlike any other in the world. This essay then was written originally to inform non-americans as to how the American political system works. What has been striking, however, is how many Americans - especially young Americans - have found the essay useful and insightful. There is considerable evidence that many Americans know and understand little about the political system of their own country - possibly more than is the case with any other developed democratic nation. It has found that the two worst subjects for American students are civics and American history. On one of my trips to the United States, I was eating cereal for breakfast and found that the whole of the reverse side of the cereal packet was devoted to a short explanation of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the American government. I find it hard to imagine that many democratic nations would feel it necessary to explain such a subject in such a format. So I hope that this explanation helps But this is a fundamental neccesity in the case of the American political system. This is because the Constitution of the United States is so different from those of other nations and because that Constitution is, in all material respects, the same document as it was over two centuries ago. The United States had just fought and won a bloody War of Independence from Britain and it was determined to create a political system that was totally different from the British system in which considerable authority still resided in a hereditary King George III at the time or Queen and in which Parliament was increasingly assertive in the exercise of its growing powers. Therefore the new constitution deliberately spread power between the three arms of government - executive, legislature and judiciary - and ensured that each arm was able to limit the exercise of power by the other arms. The United States was already a large country with problems of communications and a population of varied background and education. Therefore, for all the intentions to be a new democracy, it was seen as important to limit the influence of swings in public opinion. So the election of the president was placed in the hands of an Electoral College, rather than the subject of direct election, and the terms of office of the president and the two chambers of the legislature were all set at different lengths. The United States was the creation of 13 individual states, each of which valued its traditions and powers, and so the overarching federal government was deliberately limited in its powers compared to the position of the central government in other nations. The original 13 states of the USA were of very different size in terms of population and from the beginning there was a determination by the smaller states that political power should not be excessively in the hands of the larger states. This is why today six states have only one member in the House of Representatives but two members in the Senate. In, the most populous state, Virginia, was 20 times larger than the least, Tennessee. Today, the equivalent ratio - California compared to Wyoming - is 67 to 1. This impacts the political composition of both the Senate and the Electoral College. So originally the legislature was seen as the most powerful arm of government it is described first in the Constitution but, over time, both the Presidency starting with the time of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War and the Supreme Court especially on social issues like desegregation, marriage and abortion have assumed more power. The Declaration of Independence of and the Constitution of form the foundations of the United States federal government. The Declaration of Independence establishes the United States as an independent political entity, while the Constitution creates the basic structure of the federal government. Further information on the thinking expressed in the Constitution can be found in the Federalist Papers which are a series of 85 articles and essays published in promoting the ratification of the Constitution. The United States Constitution is both the longest-lasting in the world, being over two centuries old, and one of the the shortest in the world, having just seven articles and 27 amendments the constitutions of Jordan, Libya and Iceland are the shortest in the world running to a mere 2,, Page 3

4 words. As well as its age and brevity, the US Constitution is notable for being a remarkably stable document. The first 10 amendments were all carried in - the same year as the original constitution - and are collectively known as the Bill of Rights. If one accepts that these first 10 amendments were in effect part of the original constitutional settlement, there have only been 17 amendments in almost years. In fact, famously the 27th Amendment took over years to achieve ratification, having been originally proposed at the same time as the 10 that make up the Bill of Rights but having only reached ratification in The last new and substantive amendment - reduction of the voting age to 18 - was in, almost half a century ago. One of the major reasons for this relative immutability is that - quite deliberately on the part of its drafters - the Constitution is a very difficult instrument to change. First, a proposed amendment has to secure a two-thirds vote of members present in both houses of Congress. Then three-quarters of the state legislatures have to ratifiy the proposed change this stage may or may not be governed by a specific time limit. This was first written in, shortly after women were given the vote in the USA. The proposed amendment was introduced in Congress unsuccessfully in every legislative year from until it was finally passed in It was then sent to each state for ratification but, by, it was still three states short of the minimum of the 38 needed to add it to the constitution. Various attempts since to revive the amendment have all failed. Not only is power spread between the different branches; the members of those branches are deliberately granted by the Constitution different terms of office which is a further brake on rapid political change. So the President has a term of four years, while members of the Senate serve for six years and members of the House of Representatives serve for two years. Members of the Supreme Court effectively serve for life. The great weakness of the system is that it makes government slow, complicated and legalistic which is a particular disadvantage in a world - unlike that of - in which political and economic developments are fast-moving and the USA is a - indeed the - super power. Since the Constitution is so short, so old and so difficult to change, for it to be meaningful to contemporary society it requires interpretation by the courts and ultimately it is the Supreme Court which determines what the Constitution means. There are very different approaches to the interpretation of the Constitution with the two main strands of thought being known as originalism and the Living Constitution. Originalism is a principle of interpretation that tries to discover the original meaning or intent of the constitution. It is based on the principle that the judiciary is not supposed to create, amend or repeal laws which is the realm of the legislative branch but only to uphold them. This approach tends to be supported by conservatives. Living Constitution is a concept which claims that the Constitution has a dynamic meaning and that contemporary society should be taken into account when interpreting key constitutional phrases. Instead of seeking to divine the views of the drafters of the document, it claims that they deliberately wrote the Constitution in broad terms so that it would remain flexible. This approach tends to be supported by liberals. The President is the head of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States. He - so far, the position has always been held by a man - is both the head of state and the head of government, as well as the military commander-in-chief and chief diplomat. The President presides over the executive branch of the government, a vast organisation numbering about four million people, including one million active-duty military personnel. The so-called Hatch Act of forbids anyone in the executive branch - except the President or Vice-President - from using his or her official position to engage in political activity. Who is eligible to become a President? To be President, one has to: The President is elected for a fixed term of four years and may serve a maximum of two terms. Originally there was no constitutional limit on the number of terms that a President could serve in office and the first President George Washington set the precedent of serving simply two terms. Following the election of Franklin D Roosevelt to a record four terms, it was decided to limit terms to two and the relevant constitutional change - the 22nd Amendment - was enacted in Elections are always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November to coincide with Congressional elections. So the last election was held on 8 November and the next eelction will be held on 3 November The President is not elected directly by the voters but by an Electoral College representing each state on the basis of a combination of the number of members in the Senate two for each state regardless of size and the number of members in the House of Page 4

5 Representatives roughly proportional to population. The states with the largest number of votes are California 55, Texas 38 and New York The states with the smallest number of votes - there are seven of them - have only three votes. The District of Columbia, which has no voting representation in Congress, has three Electoral College votes. In effect, therefore, the Presidential election is not one election but The total Electoral College vote is This means that, to become President, a candidate has to win at least electoral votes. The voting system awards the Electoral College votes from each state to delegates committed to vote for a certain candidate in a "winner take all" system, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska which award their Electoral College votes according to Congressional Districts rather than for the state as a whole. In practice, most states are firmly Democrat - for instance, California and New York - or firmly Republican - for instance, Texas and Tennessee. Therefore, candidates concentrate their appearances and resources on the so-called "battleground states", those that might go to either party. The three largest battleground or swing states are Florida 29 votes, Pennsylvania 20 and Ohio This system of election means that a candidate can win the largest number of votes nationwide but fail to win the largest number of votes in the Electoral College and therefore fail to become President. Indeed, in practice, this has happened four times in US history: On the last occasion, the losing canidate Hillary Clinton actuallu secured 2. The same Constitution, however, enables each state to determine how its members in the Electoral College are chosen and since the s states have chosen their electors by a direct vote of the people. The United States is the only example in the world of an indirectly elected executive president. In the event that the Electoral College is evenly divided between two candidates or no candidate secures a majority of the votes, the constitution provides that the choice of President is made by the House of Representatives and the choice of Vice-President is made by the Senate. In the first case, the representatives of each state have to agree collectively on the allocation of a single vote. In the second case, each senator has one vote. This has actually happened twice - in and In, the House of Representatives, after 35 votes in which neither Thomas Jefferson nor Aaron Burr obtained a majority, elected Jefferson on the 36th ballot. In, neither John Quincy Adams nor Andrew Jackson was able to secure a majority of the votes in the Electoral College and the House of Representatives chose Adams even though he had fewer Electoral Colleage votes and fewer votes at the ballot boxes than Jackson. What are the powers of the President? Within the executive branch, the President has broad constitutional powers to manage national affairs and the workings of the federal government. The President may issue executive orders to affect internal policies. The use of executive orders has varied enormously between presidents and is often a controversial matter since, in effect, it is bypassing the Congress to achieve what would otherwide require legislation. Very few such orders were issued until the time of Abraham Lincoln the Emanicpation Declaration was such an order ; use of executive orders was considerable and peaked during the terms of the seven presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Franklin D Roosevelt ; but, since the Second World War, use has been more modest with Democrats tending to issue them a bit more than Republicans. Barack Obama has made very sparing use of this power, notably to reform immigration law and to tighten gun controls. Executive orders can be overturned by a succeeding President. The President has the power to recommend measures to Congress and may sign or veto legislation passed by Congress. The Congress may override a presidential veto but only by a two-thirds majority in each house. The President has the authority to appoint Cabinet members, Supreme Court justices. The President has the power to pardon criminals convicted of offences against the federal government and most controversially President Gerald Ford used this power to pardon his predecessor Richard Nixon. The President can declare war for 60 days but then has to have the approval of Congress although it can be difficult to withdraw troops once they have been committed. Since, there has been an Executive Office of the President EOP which has consistently and considerably expanded in size and power. Besides the formal powers of the President, there are informal means of exercising influence. Currently Donald Trump uses his personal Twitter account to issue several messages a day to as at summer some The President may be impeached which means that he is removed from the office. Page 5

6 Chapter 3 : The Origins and Functions of Political Parties Scholastic The Vice President of the United States has the additional duty of President of the racedaydvl.com is the Vice President's duty as President of the Senate to cast a tie-breaking vote in the event that "they be equally divided"â an equal number of Senators voting both for and against a motion. The above cartoon â titled "Stranger Things Have Happened" â dates from From the beginning, American political parties have had a tarnished reputation. In his Farewell Address to the nation, George Washington warned against "the baneful effects of the spirit of party" as inciting American citizens "with ill-founded jealousies. Since many Americans have become disenchanted by partisan politics, they avoid identification as a "loyal Democrat" or a "staunch Republican. Roles of Political Parties Running candidates for political office. Parties select candidates for many elected positions in American politics. With so many officials to choose, most voters would be overwhelmed by the decisions they would have to make if candidates did not wear party "labels. Some voters even choose a straight ticket, or candidates from the same party for all positions in that election. Checking the other party. A party that does not hold the majority in Congress often keeps the party in power from taking complete control. Party leaders can publicly criticize actions of a President who was elected by the opposite party. The criticism of "partisanship" comes from this party role because many Americans think that the "checking" becomes petty and self-serving. Parties take stands on issues and criticize the points of view of the other parties. Their well-publicized discussions help to inform citizens about important issues and present alternative ways of solving societal problems. Congress and the state legislatures are organized according to party affiliations. Virtually all candidates run for public office with party labels that define their behavior after they win. Why a Two-Party System? The Green Party encourages its members to work in grassroots efforts on issues of ecology and social equality. Most other democratic nations have multi-party systems. Even though third parties have popped up regularly throughout American history, they have either died, or their ideas have been absorbed by a major party. Three good reasons for the American two-party system include the following: Alexander Hamilton contributed to laying the framework of the modern Republican Party. His support for the ratification of the U. Constitution led to the formation of the Federalist Party, which fizzled out by It is easy to complain about petty bickering between Democrats and Republicans. What we sometimes forget is that Americans share a broad consensus, or agreement, of many basic political values. Both parties believe in liberty, equality, and individualism. Neither advocates that the Constitution be discarded. Both parties accept the election process and concede defeat to the winners. In many countries with multi-party systems, the range of beliefs is greater, and disagreements run deeper. The nation began with two political parties â the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans. The tendency has persisted throughout American history. Third Parties Should third-party candidates be allowed to participate in presidential debates? The single most important reason for a two-party system is the winner-take-all electoral system. In contrast to systems with proportional representation, the winner in American elections is the one who receives the largest number of votes. The winner does not need to have more than 50 percent, but only one vote more than his or her opponents. Consequently, one of the two major parties almost always wins a plurality, and third parties are completely shut out of national offices. Even though political parties are often regarded as "necessary evils," they still play an important role in American government and politics today. The two broad-based major political parties offer alternatives to voters and help connect citizens to their government. Democratic National Committee Visit the official page of the Democratic National Committee for up to the minute information on Democratic candidates and other goings on. Republican National Committee Visit the official page of the Republican National Committee for up to the minute information on Republican candidates and other goings on. Visit the "Newsroom" for the latest press releases from the Republican Party and watch "GOP-TV" for "exclusive webcast updates on the events that shape the Republican message. With a platform that includes an emphasis Page 6

7 on social justice and equal opportunity, this third party continues to gain support. Page 7

8 Chapter 4 : CiNii Books - The changing legal status of political parties in the United States In still other states, an aspiring political party must register a certain number of voters. As of May, there were at least 32 distinct ballot-qualified political parties in the United States. There were state-level parties. Some parties are recognized in multiple states. John McCain History The term Republican was adopted in by supporters of Thomas Jefferson, who favoured a decentralized government with limited powers. The Republican Party traces its roots to the s, when antislavery leaders including former members of the Democratic, Whig, and Free-Soil parties joined forces to oppose the extension of slavery into the Kansas and Nebraska territories by the proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act. At meetings in Ripon, Wisconsin May, and Jackson, Michigan July, they recommended forming a new party, which was duly established at the political convention in Jackson. At their first presidential nominating convention in, the Republicans nominated John C. During the first four years of its existence, the party rapidly displaced the Whigs as the main opposition to the dominant Democratic Party. In the Democrats split over the slavery issue, as the Northern and Southern wings of the party nominated different candidates Stephen A. Douglas and John C. Breckinridge, respectively ; the election that year also included John Bell, the nominee of the Constitutional Union Party. Thus, the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, was able to capture the presidency, winning 18 Northern states and receiving 60 percent of the electoral vote but only 40 percent of the popular vote. The abolition of slavery would, in, be formally entrenched in the Constitution of the United States with the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment. Because the historical role played by Lincoln and the Republican Party in the abolition of slavery came to be regarded as their greatest legacy, the Republican Party is sometimes referred to as the party of Lincoln. To broaden his support, he chose as his vice presidential candidate Andrew Johnson, a pro-union Democratic senator from Tennessee, and the Lincoln-Johnson ticket subsequently won a landslide victory over Democrat George B. McClellan and his running mate George Pendleton. Although the Senate fell one vote short of convicting and removing Johnson, the Radical Republicans managed to implement their Reconstruction program, which made the party anathema across the former Confederacy. After the Democratic and Republican parties became the major parties in a largely two-party system. In federal elections from the s to the s, the parties were in rough balanceâ except in the South, which became solidly Democratic. The two parties controlled Congress for almost equal periods, though the Democrats held the presidency only during the two terms of Grover Cleveland â 89 and â The Democrats, already burdened by the economic depression that began under President Cleveland, nominated William Jennings Bryan, who advocated cheap money money available at low interest rates based on both gold and silver. Presidential campaign ribbon for William McKinley, c. Roosevelt opposed monopolistic and exploitative business practices, adopted a more conciliatory attitude toward labour, and urged the conservation of natural resources. He was reelected in but declined to run in, deferring to his secretary of war and friend, William Howard Taft, who won handily. With the Republican vote divided, Wilson won the presidency, and he was reelected in The Republicans easily won the presidential elections of,, and Campaign buttoncampaign button for Theodore Roosevelt, c. The stock market crash of and the Great Depression that followed had severe consequences for the Republicans, largely because of their unwillingness to combat the effects of the depression through direct government intervention in the economy. Roosevelt, and the Republicans were relegated to the status of a minority party. Dewey in kept the Republicans out of the White House for two decades. Eisenhower, who easily defeated Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson in the general election. Nevertheless, Eisenhower did dispatch federal troops to Arkansas in to enforce the court-ordered racial integration of a high school in Little Rock ; he also signed the Civil Rights Acts of and In the early s Sen. The party retained the traditional support of both big and small business and gained new support from growing numbers of middle-class suburbanites andâ perhaps most significantlyâ white Southerners, who were upset by the prointegration policies of leading Democrats, including President Truman, who had ordered Page 8

9 the integration of the military. Eisenhower was reelected in, but in Richard M. The Republicans were in severe turmoil at their convention, where moderates and conservatives battled for control of the party. Ultimately, the conservatives secured the nomination of Senator Barry M. Goldwater, who lost by a landslide to President Lyndon B. Many Southern Democrats abandoned the party to vote for the anti-integration candidate George C. In, 5 of the 6 states won by Goldwater were in the South; in, 11 Southern states voted for Nixon and only 1 voted for Humphrey. Although Nixon was reelected by a landslide in, Republicans made few gains in congressional, state, and local elections and failed to win control of Congress. In the wake of the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned the presidency in August and was succeeded in office by Gerald R. Ford, the first appointed vice president to become president. Ford lost narrowly to Southern Democrat Jimmy Carter in In Ronald W. Reagan introduced deep tax cuts and launched a massive buildup of U. His personal popularity and an economic recovery contributed to his state victory over Democrat Walter F. Congress continued to be controlled by the Democrats, however, and Bush lost his bid for reelection in to another Southern Democrat, Bill Clinton. Clinton was reelected in, though the Republicans retained control of Congress. In Texas Governor George W. Bush, son of the former president, recaptured the presidency for the Republicans, receiving, fewer popular votes than Democrat Al Gore but narrowly winning a majority of the electoral vote â after the Supreme Court of the United States ordered a halt to the manual recounting of disputed ballots in Florida. The Republicans also won a majority in both chambers of Congress though the Democrats gained effective control of the Senate in following the decision of Republican Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont to became an independent. In Bush was narrowly reelected, winning both the popular and electoral vote, and the Republicans kept control of both houses of Congress. In the midterm elections, however, the Republicans fared poorly, hindered largely by the growing opposition to the Iraq War, and the Democrats regained control of both the House and the Senate. In the general election of the Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, was defeated by Democrat Barack Obama, and the Democrats increased their majority in both houses of Congress. Tea Party candidates, some of whom had displaced candidates favoured by the Republican establishment during the primaries, had mixed success in the general election. In the general election, the Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was unable to unseat Obama. The situation in Congress remained relatively unchanged, with Republicans retaining their hold on the House of Representatives and Democrats successfully defending their majority in the Senate. The Republicans regained control of the Senate during the midterm elections. The presidential election was a watershed moment for the Republican Party. Because the party is highly decentralized as is the Democratic Party, it encompasses a wide variety of opinion on certain issues, though it is ideologically more unified at the national level than the Democratic Party is. The Republicans advocate reduced taxes as a means of stimulating the economy and advancing individual economic freedom. They tend to oppose extensive government regulation of the economy, government-funded social programs, affirmative action, and policies aimed at strengthening the rights of workers. Many Republicans, though not all, favour increased government regulation of the private, noneconomic lives of citizens in some areas, such as abortion, though most Republicans also strongly oppose gun-control legislation. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to support organized prayer in public schools and to oppose the legal recognition of equal rights for gays and lesbians see gay rights movement. Regarding foreign policy, the Republican Party traditionally has supported a strong national defense and the aggressive pursuit of U. The conventions take place in the summer of each presidential election year; by tradition, the incumbent party holds its convention second. The Republican National Convention typically gathers some 2, delegates who are selected during the winter and spring. Until the s, few nationwide rules governed the selection of delegates to the Republican National Convention. After the Democratic Party adopted a system based on state primaries and caucuses, the Republicans followed suit. More than 40 states now select delegates to the Republican convention through primary elections, while several other states choose delegates through caucuses. In contrast, almost all Democratic primaries allocate delegates based on the proportion of the vote each candidate receives. As a result, the Republicans tend to choose their Page 9

10 presidential nominees more quickly than the Democrats do, often long before the summer nominating convention, leaving the convention simply to ratify the winner of the primaries. Republican members of the House and the Senate organize themselves into party conferences that elect the party leaders of each chamber. In keeping with the decentralized nature of the party, each chamber also creates separate committees to raise and disburse funds for House and Senate election campaigns. Although Republican congressional party organizations maintain close informal relationships with the RNC, they are formally separate from it and not subject to its control. Similarly, state party organizations are not subject to direct control by the national committee. Republican National Committee logo. Page 10

11 Chapter 5 : Political Geography in American Politics - Political Science - Oxford Bibliographies The changing legal status of political parties in the United States. John Wallace Walker Epperson. UMI Dissertation Services, c First party to hold a convention to nominate candidates Prohibition Party Has nominated a candidate for president in every election since Progressive Party Elected a number of candidates to state legislatures, Congress, and even the U. Green Party Some members have won local elections. People who feel strongly about a particular issue might be drawn to a third party that focuses exclusively on that issue. The Greenback Party focused on the monetary system, and the Prohibition Party sought to ban the consumption of alcohol. The Populist Party, meanwhile, grew out of the Populist movement, and the Republican Party developed primarily out of the abolitionist movement. Dissatisfaction with the status quo: Some third parties form when part of a major party breaks off in protest and forms a splinter party. In, Theodore Roosevelt led a group of dissidents out of the Republican Party to form the splinter Progressive Party. Third parties can be closely tied to a specific region, which can increase their appeal. If the leader leaves the party, however, the party often collapses, which is what happened to the Reform Party in the mids. In, the party split in two over the candidacy of former Republican Pat Buchanan. Neither Buchanan nor his Reform Party rival gained many votes, and the party has largely disappeared from the national stage. The Role of Third Parties Despite their lack of success in the polls, third parties can affect American politics in a number of ways: Third parties propose many government policies and practices. The Populist Party introduced ideas that influenced some economic policies of the New Deal, whereas the Anti-Masonic Party was the first party to use a convention to nominate its candidates, in the mid-nineteenth century. Put issues on the agenda: Third parties can force the major parties to address potentially divisive problems. In, neither Bill Clinton nor George H. Bush talked much about the budget deficit until independent candidate Ross Perot emphasized it in his campaign. Third parties can cost one party an election by playing the spoiler. If a third party draws enough votes away from a major party, it can prevent that party from winning. It is impossible to know for sure what would have happened had the third-party candidate not run, but in some cases, it seems that the third party probably cost one candidate the election. Keep the major parties honest: A leftist party can challenge the Democratic Party, for example, on social justice issues, whereas a conservative party can pose problems for the Republican Party. Because third-party candidates usually have little chance of winning, they can speak more frankly than their major party rivals, addressing facts and issues that the major parties would often prefer to ignore. Page 11

12 Chapter 6 : Political parties in the United States - Wikipedia The first political parties in the United States were the Democratic and the Republican. false George Washington believed that the establishment of the two-party system would act as a bulwark of liberty for the United States. For decades the leading scholarship in the American setting relied heavily on survey research that frequently downplayed the significance of political geography, or ignored it altogether. To be sure, the most salient geographic cleavage, the North-South sectional divide, has perennially received its due. But the unit of analysis in so many studies was overly simplisticâ typically employing a dummy indicator for the South or the North in a national examination of voter behavior. Contemporary scholarship on the role of political geography in American politics has advanced considerably because of 1 the reemergence of questions such as how place affects behavior, and 2 attendant gains in methodological sophistication. With the use of Geographic Information Systems GIS technology, old questions have been revisited and a host of new research agendas spawned by the capability of isolating spatial units and then gauging their contribution to shaping political behavior. At the macro level, the common awareness of political divisions across regions, states, and within states now makes room for micro-level studies that routinely move below the county and go all the way down to the neighborhood. Indeed, recent contributions examining the effects of place have created a veritable renaissance in the way American politics scholars view geography as a factor influencing political behavior and electoral outcomes. General Overviews With the exception of Key, a masterful study of Southern politics, few political science works have used an extensive mixed-methods approach to evaluate the role of geography in affecting political behavior. It is not because political scientists lack the training to conduct such studies at least this is no longer the case, but more likely because they see the task of undertaking an exhaustive spatial examination of politics as more suited for a political geographer. Sundquist is a classic on political realignment that is rich in historical information on the enduring sectional divisions in American politics and provides a compelling statement of the dynamics at work in fostering party system change. Rohde and its theory of conditional party government is rooted in the evidence that partisan sorting within congressional constituencies has enabled Democratic and Republican party leaders and their followers in the US House to increasingly polarize along a liberal versus conservative ideological continuum. Bensel on American political development, with the Civil War as its central focus, offers a compelling explanation for how this pivotal event bolstered state authority and perhaps surprisingly why a central authority had an even more powerful role in holding together the Confederate States of America. Elazar and its classification of state cultures individualist, moralist, and traditionalist, though often criticized, remains a commonly used measure for distinguishing among political features and practices found within different regions of the United States. For instance, Erikson, et al. Brown is a study of how migration influences political behavior and has served as a foundational work for later accounts of how party identification and voter preferences are influenced when an individual relocates to a different political environment. To be clear, there is no comprehensive textbook account of political geography in the American politics literature; instead, there are numerous studies that center on narrower questions of how place affects politics and, therefore, these aforementioned works are singled out because they have influenced many of the leading strains of subsequent geographic-based research. Cambridge University Press, University of North Carolina Press, A seminal work on the political effects associated with immigration. Explores how political behavior is influenced when an individual migrates to a new political environment. A View from the States. State politics scholars often employ this subculture classification scheme in their analyses of state politics. Wright, and John P. Sectionalism and Political Change in American Politics. University of Michigan Press, An examination of several key compositional factors that shape the politics within states and across regions, over time. A convincing account of what makes states and regions vary in their partisan compositions and electoral outputs. Southern Politics in State and Nation. Numerous analyses demonstrate how geography shapes voting patterns and election outcomes. Parties and Page 12

13 Leaders in the Postreform House. University of Chicago Press, The Dynamics of the American Party System: Page 13

14 Chapter 7 : Political Parties â Elections After brushes with immigration reform that began in and continued in and, the United States seems to be on the threshold of overhauling the legal immigration system in the most substantive way since The Institutions of Foreign Policy The Structure of Political Parties The major political parties are organized at the local usually county, state, and national levels. Party leaders and activists are involved in choosing people to run for office, managing and financing campaigns, and developing positions and policies that appeal to party constituents. The national party organizations play key roles in presidential elections. Local party organization Political parties operate at the local level in municipal and county elections though many cities choose officials â mayors and members of city council â through nonpartisan elections, in which candidates effectively run as independents without party affiliation. In partisan elections, the party is involved in identifying candidates, providing professional staff, and taking positions on issues of immediate concern to voters. The party leadership recognizes that the interaction between party workers, candidates, and voters is important. In the late 19th century on through a good part of the 20th century, political machines flourished in several large cities; Tammany Hall in New York, Frank Hague in Jersey City, the Pendergast family in Kansas City, and Richard Daley in Chicago are examples. The political bosses, the mayors, and the party leaders used their control of patronage jobs to reward party loyalty and provide a broad range of social services. Reforms in the civil service and the growth of primary elections gradually brought an end to machine politics. State party organization Political parties prepare for statewide elections. Party activists are named as electors in the Electoral College if their party carries the state in a presidential election. Candidates for state office may be chosen through a primary election, state convention, or caucus process. At a state caucus, party members select their candidates. In many states, the executive officials â governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer, and attorney general â are elected as individuals. In such states, it is not unusual for voters to elect a Democratic governor and a Republican lieutenant governor or vice versa. National party organization At the national level, political parties run candidates for Congress and the presidency. Each party has its own national committee made up of party leaders, elected officials, and the chairs of the state party organizations. The Democratic and Republican national committees do not run the campaigns of their respective presidential candidates; they play a supporting role to the campaign organizations of the candidates themselves. In both the Senate and the House, each party has its own congressional campaign committee, which raises money for congressional elections. The national convention The national committee loosely runs the party between national conventions. The delegates to the convention are already committed to vote for particular candidates based on the results of the state primary or caucus voting. While some delegates are appointed by the state party organization, the overwhelming majority are selected through primaries and caucuses. The party works on and announces its platform at the national convention. The platform is made up of planks that explain how the party stands on the issues facing the country. The terms platform and plank date from the presidential election of, when national party conventions were first held. Developing the platform is often the most controversial part of the convention. The Republicans, for example, have had to work out an acceptable compromise on abortion between pro-choice and pro-life forces within the party. Page 14