Postwar Parties

 For Wednesday, Rosenfeld, ch. 4.

PRELUDE:  WILLKIE AND ROOSEVELT.  

Four years earlier, FDR -- on tape!! -- talked about publicizing Willkie's extramarital activities.

`

American Political Science Association, "Toward a More Responsible Two-party System. A Report of the Committee on Political Parties" (supplement to American Political Science Review 44, 3 (September, 1950)), http://www.uvm.edu/~dguber/POLS125/articles/apsa.pdf.

Tom Dewey wasn't buying it (Rosenfeld, p. 64):

Then they would have everything very neatly arranged, indeed. The Democratic party would be the liberal-to-radical party. The Republican party would be the conservative-to-reactionary party. The results would be neatly arranged, too. The Republicans would lose every election and the Democrats would win every election. 

1948

• The Rowe Memo and the Politics of 1948
• THIRD PARTY: 1948 Dixiecrats 
• FOURTH PARTY: Progressives (Henry Wallace had Soviet ties)
• Truman and the Fair Deal -- ironically, the next big champion of national health insurance would be ... Richard Milhous Nixon!

1952

"No development proved more galvanizing to the emergence of that activism than Adlai Stevenson's first campaign for president" (Rosenfeld 28).  Start around 11:00:

Michael Barone on Stevenson:

"Stevenson was the first leading Democratic politician to become a critic rather than a celebrator of middle-class American culture—the prototype of the liberal Democrat who would judge ordinary Americans by an abstract standard and find them wanting ...When a supporter told Adlai Stevenson... that thinking people supported him, Stevenson said, `Yes, but I need to win a majority.' When another supporter told Stevenson, `You educated the people through your campaign,' Stevenson replied, `But a lot of people flunked the course.' It is unthinkable that Roosevelt would ever have said those things or that such thoughts ever would have crossed his mind." 

Partisanship and Bipartisanship

• The bill establishing the Interstate Highway System passed 89-1 in the Senate, voice vote in the House.
• Ike on the right wing
• Supreme Court nominations

Meanwhile ... a new kind of conservatism was rising

Two Parties

 FOR NEXT TIME: Rosenfeld, introduction, and ch. 1-3

First writing assignment

Parliamentary parties in

• United Kingdom  (of course, a CMC connection)
• Canada

Party competition and local party monopolies

Nationalization of elections

• Even local and state legislative elections 
• Campaign money

Why only two parties?

Duverger's Law (Hershey, 39)

Why did the Framers not choose proportional representation?

The electoral college

Major parties coopt minor ones:

• Bryan Democrats and Populism
• Wilson Democrats and Progressivism
• FDR Democrats and socialism, then Long (start at 13:30)
• Nixon and the South
  
• Clinton

Structure of Congress and the legislatures forces members to choose one side or the other.

Campaign finance and debate rules

Ballot access

The doom loop:

On the Hill

First Writing Assignment, Spring 2024

 Pick one:

• Compare and contrast a Democratic or Republican platform from 1948-1964 with the same party's 2016 OR 2020 platform. (The GOP did not have one in 2020.) What do the similarities and differences tell you about how the national party has changed?  (Platform texts here.)
• Pick any national party chair in the postwar era.  (GOP list, Democratic list).  What did this leader try to do?  How did she or he fare?  In your answer, keep in mind the resources and constraints facing this leader.  Also remember that out-party chairs usually have more flexibility than in-party chairs.
• For people with an interest in foreign policy:  did the 1952 Taft-Eisenhower split on foreign policy foreshadow future Republican divisions?  How did Robert A. Taft both resemble and differ from supporters of the Trump administration? (Think of a current Ohio senator, J.D. Vance.)
  

Essays should reflect an understanding of class readings and discussions. Many resources, including CQ Weekly, are at Honnold Library/Databases/CQ Library. You should check other sources as well. See:

• http://www1.cmc.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/elect.htm 
• http://www1.cmc.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/dempub.html  

PLEASE EMAIL ME IF ANY LINKS ARE BROKEN!

The specifications:

• Essays should be typed (12-point), double-spaced, and no more than four pages long. I will not read past the fourth page. Please submit essays as Word documents, not pdfs.
• Cite your sources. Please use endnotes in the format of Chicago Manual of Style. Endnotes do not count against the page limit. Please do not use footnotes, which take up too much page space.
•  Misrepresenting AI-generated content as your own work is plagiarism and will result in severe consequences
• Watch your spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Errors will count against you. Return essays to the Sakai dropbox for this class by 11: 59 PM, Friday, February 9. I reserve the right to dock papers one gradepoint for one day’s lateness, a full letter grade after that.

• READ STRUNK AND WHITE FIRST.
• READ MY WRITING AND RESEARCH PAGE
• WATCH MY WRITING LECTURE.

What Are Parties?

For Thursday, Hershey ch. 2. First writing assignment:  topic suggestions welcome!

Reax to the Politico story?

NH Primary

What is a party?  How does it differ from an interest group?

Why Parties? What do parties do?

Every large democracy has parties.

Countries  without legal political parties. 

•  Bahrain – Political parties are banned; candidates must be independent.
•  Kuwait – Political parties are banned; candidates must be independent.
•  Niue
•  Oman – Political parties are banned; candidates must be independent.
•  Qatar – Political parties are banned; candidates must be independent.
•  Saudi Arabia – Political parties are banned.[1]
•  Tuvalu
•  United Arab Emirates – Political parties are banned; candidates must be independent.
•  Vatican City State

Most democratic systems do not have party primaries.

Party competition and the power of incumbency

Reelection rates

Fewer and fewer split-ticket seats

The rise of trifectas

Party Systems (Hershey ch. 1)

CHANGES IN THE PARTY SYSTEM REFLECT CHANGES IN THE NATION'S DEMOGRAPHIC AND ECONOMIC MAKEUP.

THERE IS NO CONSISTENT "LEFT" AND "RIGHT" IN AMERICAN POLITICS.

First Party System: 1792–1824

Jefferson to Madison, 1793:

The line is now drawn so clearly as to show on one side, 1. The fashionable circles of Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Charleston, (natural aristocrats), 2. Merchants trading on British capital, 3. Paper men (all the old tories are found in some one of the three descriptions). On the other side are, 1. Merchants trading on their own capital. 2. Irish merchants. 3. Tradesmen, mechanics, farmers, and every other possible description of our citizens.

1800:  Burr invents campaigning:

In those days, presidential electors were chosen by the state legislatures, and New York’s legislative elections were held early, in April. By outmaneuvering Hamilton and the Federalists, and briefly uniting the bickering Republican factions, Burr secured New York for Jefferson. He did it by employing what we would admire as a strong political ground game. Rather than affecting to be above politics, as Jefferson did, for example, Burr campaigned openly, made detailed lists of likely voters and party donors, and turned his house into a campaign headquarters.

Federalists (die off by 1816) v. Democratic-Republican Party (also called "Democratic-Republican" or "Jeffersonian Republican").

Second Party System: 1828–1854 

• Democrats v. National Republicans, then Whigs
• Whigs crumble over the slavery issue.

Third Party System: 1854–1892

Democrats v. Republicans.  The Democratic coalition includes pro-business Southern Democrats, traditional Democrats in the North and Catholic immigrants, among others. The Republican coalition consists of businessmen, shop owners, skilled craftsmen, clerks, and professionals.

Fourth Party System: 1896–1928

Domestic issues changed to government regulation of business and banking, the tariff, the role of labor unions, child labor, political corruption and reform. racial segregation, women's suffrage, and immigration. The nation shifts from rural to urban, from mostly native-born to immigrant stock.

Away from the farm:

Fifth Party System 1932-1968 

New Deal Coalition. African-Americans, union members, and ethnic and religious minorities, city dwellers, "the Solid South." Republicans have the leftovers.

Sixth Party System 1972-present

• Part A (1972-1988).  South moves to GOP in presidential elections, and GOP wins  4 of 5 races, with 49-state landslides in 1972 and 1984.  Democrats dominate downballot.
• Part B (1992-2020).  Democrats dominate nationwide, winning popular vote in 7 of 8 elections. Parties trade control of Congress and GOP grows stronger in the states.

PIE PO PIG POG, and the Networks That Tie Them Together

For Tuesday, Hershey, ch. 1.

From the article:

In our view, party networks make big decisions. They choose candidates, set policy agendas, formulate ideologies, and build coalitions. Obviously, though, networks lacking centralized leadership or decisionmaking rules usually do not “make” these decisions by at or vote counting, but rather through communication and mutual consent. This creates opportunities for dissent, factionalism, or exit. Both the process of making decisions and the responses of dissenting actors deserve further study. If party actors are playing signaling games, which signals are most influential within a network, and why? How are party
actors rewarded or punished for the signals they send? Under what conditions will party-affiliated interest
groups, media, and activists “leave” a party network?

PIE -- party in the electorate

• Electoral change:  a cinematic map

The issues change over time ("Free Silver" in the 1890s)

Positions change.  Statehood for Puerto Rico

Identification and Identity

PO -- party organization

PIG -- party in government

POG -- partisan outside groups

In addition to fundraising groups, consider:

• Think Tanks
• Partisan Media
• "Influencers"

From the article:

And informal organizations have always been hard to square with formal party organizations. Are super PACs part of the party, or not? Are the Koch brothers part of the Republican organization, or just unusually enthusiastic fans with their own tools and agenda? We could ask the same question of a host of informal organizations that have built parties throughout American history

Factions within parties 

• Democrats
• Republicans

About Last Night: The Iowa Caucuses as a Microcosm

 For Thursday, read Gregory Koger, Seth Masket, and Hans Noel, "No Disciplined Army: American Political Parties as Networks," in The Oxford Handbook of Political Networks, ed. Jennifer Nicoll et al. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018).  ON SAKAI.

Last night's Iowa Caucuses illustrate many aspects of the course

The parties are not mirror images.  They are different.

• Party Rules and the nomination calendar
• Party Composition
• The unique role of Trump

The parties have evolved

• The GOP and Democrats of the 19th century were totally different.
• The nomination process is a result of changes in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  The Iowa caucuses became important in 1976.

Party organizations perform services, such as running the caucuses.  They do not usually pick candidates.

Money is a big part of the story

• Cost of campaigns
• Outside spending

Party in government: Presidential candidates seek endorsements.

Dissatisfaction

• The process is likely to end up with the nomination of Biden and Trump, which most Americans do not want.  
• Most Americans want a third party.
• But no third party is likely to break double digits.

Gov 123 Syllabus Spring 2024

American Political Parties

CMC Government 123  Spring 2024

Tue, Thu 11 AM- 12:15 PM Pacific

Roberts South 102  

ZOOM: https://cmc-its.zoom.us/j/92228697468

J.J. Pitney

Office:   Kravis 232

E-mail:  jpitney@cmc.edu

Web: http://www1.cmc.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/

Student Hours: Mon. Tue. Wed. Thu 1:30-2:30 pm 

and by appointment

 

General

For most of American history, basic features of the American constitutional system -- federalism, bicameralism, and the separation of powers -- tended to fragment and disperse party authority. American parties are not strict hierarchies but networks of ordinary voters, activists, and officeholders.  In this respect, we must examine how the networks extend across several dimensions of American parties:

• Parties in the electorate (PIE);
• Party organization (PO);
• Partisan outside groups (POG);
• Party in government (PIG).

In this course, we shall study all these dimensions and consider what they mean for democratic government.  We shall also discuss trends that have changed the character of parties. Polarization is the increasing division between parties along ideological, personal, and even cognitive lines. Nationalization is the increasing tendency of state and local politics to align with national politics.

Classes

Class sessions will include lecture and discussion. Finish each week's readings before class because our discussions will involve those readings. We shall also talk about breaking news stories about Congress, so you must read a good daily news source such as Politico or Axios.

Blog

Our class blog is at http://cmc-gov123.blogspot.com/. I shall post videos, graphs, news stories, and other material there. We shall use some of this material in class, and you may review the rest at your convenience. You will all receive invitations to post to the blog. (Please let me know if you do not get such an invitation.) I encourage you to use the blog in these ways:

• To post questions or comments about the readings before we discuss them in class;
• To follow up on class discussions with additional comments or questions.
• To post relevant news items or videos. 

Grades

The following will make up your course grade:

• Three 4-page essays: 20% each
• One research paper: 25%
• Class participation, reading emails, blog: 15% 

Details

• The papers will develop your research and writing skills. In grading, I will take account of the quality of your writing, applying the principles of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. If you object, do not take this course, or anything else that I teach.
• You will each make a brief oral presentation on your research papers, both to give you experience with briefings and to supply you with comments and suggestions about your research.
• Participation includes your activity in class and online.   I will call on students at random, and if you often miss sessions or fail to prepare, your grade will suffer. In addition, you may volunteer comments and questions.  This experience will hone your ability to think on your feet. By Friday of every week, moreover, you will also email me brief (250 words max) reflections on the readings and class discussions.   
• In addition to the required readings (below), I may also give you handouts, emails, and web links covering current events and basic factual information.
• Check due dates for coursework. Do not plan on extensions.
• As a courtesy to your fellow students, please arrive on time, and refrain from eating in class.   
• Except as a documented disability accommodation, please do not use electronic devices (tablets, laptops, smartphones) in class. Take notes the old-fashioned way, by hand, on paper.  Why? Research suggests that it works better. 
• Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty are not victimless offenses, because they hurt fellow students. Please study our Statement of Academic Integrity, which reads in part: "The faculty of Claremont McKenna College is firmly committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity. Each faculty member has the responsibility to report cases of academic dishonesty to the Academic Standards Committee."
• This class welcomes viewpoint diversity. See: https://heterodoxacademy.org/library/advice-on-syllabus-language/
• Your experience in this class is important to me, and I have a particular interest in disability. If you have set up accommodations with Accessibility Services at CMC, please tell me about your approved accommodations so we can discuss your needs in this course. You can start by forwarding me your accommodation letter. If you have not yet established accommodations but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability (e.g., mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health), please email accessibilityservices@cmc.edu to ask questions or begin the process. General information and accommodations request information are at the CMC Accessibility Services website.

Required Books (make sure that you get the correct edition of each book.)

 

• Marjorie Randon Hershey, Party Politics in America, 18th ed. (New York: Routledge, 2021).
• Sam Rosenfeld, The Polarizers: Postwar Architects of Our Partisan Era (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018). 

Schedule  The schedule is subject to change, with advance notice.  

Jan 16, 18:  Introduction

"And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night."

-- Matthew Arnold

• Gregory Koger, Seth Masket, and Hans Noel, "No Disciplined Army: American Political Parties as Networks," in The Oxford Handbook of Political Networks, ed. Jennifer Nicoll et al. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018).  ON SAKAI.

Jan 23, 25: The Two-Party System

 “In any other country, Joe Biden and I would not be in the same party, but in America, we are.” -- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)

• Hershey, ch. 1-2. 

FIRST FOUR-PAGE ESSAY ASSIGNED JAN 25, 

DUE IN SAKAI DROPBOX BY FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9.

READ STRUNK & WHITE FIRST

AND WATCH MY WRITING LECTURE.

Jan 30, Feb 1: Party History I

"Look at your houses, your parents, your wives, and your children.  Are you prepared to see your dwellings in flames,  hoary hairs bathed in blood, female chastity violated, or children writhing on the pike and halberd?" -- Connecticut Courant, September 30, 1800, on what the election of Thomas Jefferson would bring.
 

• Rosenfeld, introduction, and ch. 1-4.

  Feb 6, 8: Party History II

"The whole world is watching! The whole world is watching!"  -- Chicago protest crowd, 1968

• Rosenfeld, ch. 5-6.  

 Feb 13, 15: Party History III

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned . . ."
-- William Butler Yeats

• Rosenfeld, ch. 7-8 and conclusion.

Feb 20, 22: Party Organization

 "To divide their county into small districts, and to appoint in each a subcommittee, whose duty it shall be to make a perfect list of all the voters in their respective districts, and to ascertain with certainty for whom they will vote. If they meet with men who are doubtful as to the man they will support, such voters should be designated in separate lines, with the name of the man they will probably support."  -- Abraham Lincoln, Whig circular, 1840

• Hershey, ch. 3, 4, 5.

 Feb 27, 29: Campaign Finance and Outside Groups

"We are under no illusion that BCRA will be the last congressional statement on the matter. Money, like water, will always find an outlet." --  Justices Stevens and O'Connor in McConnell v. FEC

• Hershey, ch. 12.
• Excerpts from Henrik M. Schatzinger and Steven E. Martin, Game Changers: How Dark Money and Super PACS are Transforming U.S. Campaigns (Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2020). On Sakai.
• Current readings on outside money. ON SAKAI.

SECOND 4-PAGE ESSAY ASSIGNED BY FEB 27, 

DUE IN SAKAI DROPBOX BY MAR 8. 

Mar 5, 7: Party in the Electorate 

Selina: Come on, let's go somewhere. Let's meet the public.
Mike: You want to normalize it?
Selina: Yes, exactly. I want to meet some regular normals. Where we gonna find them?
Mike: Photo op with the normals and the normalistas.          
            --Veep, season 1, episode 2.

• Hershey, ch. 6, 7, 8.

Mar 12, 14: Spring Break

Mar 19, 21: Nominations and Elections 

Joe Cantwell: I don't understand you.
William Russell: I know you don't. Because you have no sense of responsibility toward anybody or anything. And that is a tragedy in a man, and it is a disaster in a president. -- Cliff Robertson and Henry Fonda in The Best Man

• Hershey, ch. 9, 10, 11.

Mar 26, 28:  Party in Government 

"It's hard to overstate the extent to which Democrats and Republicans inhabit different worlds in Congress. Our parties meet separately and organize separately, from the broad division of House members into a Republican Conference and a Democratic Caucus to the structure of every committee, most staff positions, and even social clubs -- the Capitol Hill Club for Republicans, the National Democratic Club for Democrats."  -- Liz Cheney

• Hershey, ch. 13, 14.

 Apr 2, 4: Oral Presentations

 Apr 9, 11:  Polarization 

 "The Democratic Party is possessed by preternatural evil. It is not a human institution any more. It is an instrument of wicked spirits." -
Remarks in 2022 by right-wing commentator (and former student!)

• Jay J. Van Bave et al., "The Costs of Polarizing a Pandemic: Antecedents, Consequences, and Lessons," Perspectives on Psychological Science (2023).  ON SAKAI
• Readings on the events of January 6, 2021. ON SAKAI.

RESEARCH PAPER DUE IN SAKAI DROPBOX

BY FRIDAY APRIL 12

 Apr 16, 18:  Third Parties and Electoral Reform

“Democrats are...the party that says government can make you richer, smarter, taller and get the chickweed out of your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it.” -- P.J. O’Rourke

• Excerpts from: Lee Drutman, Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020).  ON SAKAI
• Lee Drutman, "How I Changed My Views on Ranked-Choice Voting," Undercurrent Events, September 18, 2023, https://leedrutman.substack.com/p/how-i-updated-my-views-on-ranked

THIRD 4-PAGE ESSAY ASSIGNED BY APR 18, 

DUE IN SAKAI DROPBOX BY MAY 1

April 23, 25:  Appraisal I 

“We're like a Third World country when it comes to some of our election practices.” – Donna Brazile
 

• Elaine Kamarck, “The Urgent Need for Peer Review in the Presidential Nominating Process,” Brookings, October 29, 2019, https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/bigideas/the-urgent-need-for-peer-review-in-the-presidential-nominating-process/
• Tevi Troy, "Why Party Platforms Matter," National Affairs 59 (Spring 2024), https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/why-party-platforms-matter
• Other readings TBD by consultation with the class.

 May 5: Appraisal II 

“We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.” – C.S. Lewis

• Hershey, ch. 16.