Key terms

Key Terms and Chapter Outline

caucus- A closed meeting of party leaders to select party candidates.

congressional campaign committee- A committee in each party to help elect of reelect members.

Democratic-Republicans- The political party founded and led by Thomas Jefferson.

Factional Parties- Parties formed by a split within one of the major parties.

Factions- A name applied by some of the founders to political parties, to connote their tendency toward divisiveness.

Federalists- The political party founded and led by Alexander Hamilton.

Ideological parties- Parties that value principle above all else.

Initiative- An election in which citzens directly approve or disapprove legislation proposed by the government.

Machine- A party organization that recruits members by dispensing patronage.

National (party) chair- The person elected and paid to manage the day-to-day work of a national political party.

National committee- Delegates from each state who manage party affairs between conventions.

National convention- A meeting of electeeed party delegates every four years to nominate presidential and vice presidential candidates and ratify a campaign platform.

Nonpartisan elections- Elections in which candidates for office are not identified by party labels.

Organizational party- A party that stresses national organization to raise money and give assistance to local candidates and party units.

Personal following- The political support provided to a candidaate on the basis of personal popularity and networks.

Plurality system- An electoral system in which the winner is the person who gets the most votes but not necessarily a majority of votes.

Political machine- A party unit that recruits members with tangible rewards and that is tightly controlled by the leadership.

Political party- A group that seeds to elect candidates to public office by supplying them with a label.

Progressives- A term for party volunteers who later came to form their own reform movement.

Proportional representation- An electoral system that distributes numerous seats to parties based on their percentage of the popular vote.

Referendum- An election in which citizens directly approve or disapprove legislation propoosed by the government.

Second-party system- The arrangement of political parties initiated by Andrew Jackson.

Solidary incentives- The social rewards that lead people to join political organizations.

Sponsored parties- Party units established or maintained by outside groups.

Stalwarts- A name for party professionals, as opposed to volunteers.

Superdelegates- Elected officials who serve as delegates to the national convention.

Two-party system- An electoral system with two dominant parties that compete in state or national elections.

WInner take all- Elections that give the only office ot the candidate with the largest vote total, rather than apportionaing numerous offices by percentage of the total vote.

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[Web Links] Chapter 8: Political Parties

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[Return Home] Synopsis

Many people equate democracy with the presence of

competitive political organizations. In a democratic

political system, parties have four major functions: (1)

nominating candi-dates for election to public office;

(2) structuring the voting choice in elections; (3)

proposing alternative government programs; and (4)

coordinating the actions of government offi-cials.

Political party activity in the United States has

consistently revolved around two major parties

alternating in power. The Federalists, Democratic

Republicans, and Whigs formed the basis of two-party

systems earlier in our history. Today, the long

traditions of the Democratic party, founded in 1828, and

the Republican party, formed in 1854, virtually close

out the field to any serious challenge from a young,

upstart party.

The balance between the Democrats and Republicans in the

current party system can be usefully analyzed according

to three critical elections. A rough balance of power

between the parties followed the election of 1860. The

election of 1896 led to the Republicans' emergence as

the majority party. The election of 1932 led to a

majority of voters identifying themselves as Democrats,

which has continued to the present day.

Minority parties fall into four categories: (1) bolter

parties, which are split-off factions from a major

party; (2) farmer-labor parties, which have a populist,

working-class orientation; (3) parties of ideological

protest, such as the Socialist and Libertarian parties;

and (4) single-issue parties, such as the Prohibition

party. Minority parties on the whole have not been

strong vote getters, but they have had some success as

policy advocates. They also serve as a political safety

valve by giving discontented groups the opportunity to

air their policy views.

Party identification, a state of mind or psychological

attachment to a political party, should be distinguished

from voting, which is a behavior. Most Americans readily

identify with one of the two political parties, and this

predisposition is the most important long-term force

affecting U.S. elections. Short-term factors,

howeverÐsuch as candidate attri-butes and policy

positionsÐmay lead a voter to abandon his or her party's

nominee and vote instead for a candidate of the opposing

party.

Although both the Democrats and the Republicans support

the concept of capitalism, there is a definite

ideological gap between government roles favored by the

parties. In particular, Democrat activists are likely to

be liberals or moderates, whereas Republicans are more

inclined toward conservatism.

Neither Republicans nor Democrats have a hierarchical

party structure, and the national party has little

control over decentralized state and local election

campaigns. The candidate nomination process in American

party politics, unlike other party systems in the world,

centers on election rather than selection by party

leaders.

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