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Political Parties - Coggle Diagram
Political Parties
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Party Organisation
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State based parties and weak central structures
Often said there are 50 Republican parties and 50 state Democrat parties which do have a degree of autonomy.
Important role in organising primaries and have their own structures, but have a minimal role in candidate selection.
Democrat and Republican National Committees are national party organisations to romanise the national nomination conventions.
Associated groups
Loosely affiliated groups, sharing characteristics with pressure groups but more overtly party political.
- Democrat Socialists of America organisation
Independent from offical party structures, they work to secure the victory of progressive Democrats (Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez) in primaries.
- Tea Party movement on Republican side.
Combined role of central party structure, associated groups and donors can wield influence.
- Steve King (Iowa 4) in June 2020
Track record of racial comments, largely ostracised by Republican Hosue leadership, and removed from House committee on Agriculture, losing endorsements from conservative evangelical leaders, seen as electorally vulnerable in a prior safe seat.
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Exemplify ‘unity within diversity’, strong common purpose to secure election victories, with parallel avenues of activism.
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Significance of Third Parties
No tradition of third parties or independents having sustained presence in Congress or state legislatures.
For:
- Third parties and independents can spoil the final outcome. 2000 victory in the Bush/Gore race for Florida, Green Party Nader secured more votes than Bush’s final winning margin. If he did not stand, most of his votes would have gone to Gore, who would have become President.
- Congressional elections can be directly influenced by the presence of independent/ third party candidates.
- Policy initiatives that attract the electorate are adopted by the two main parties eg the Green New Deal.
Against:
- For most elections, they fail to make any impact on the final outcome (2012 and 2016)
- Prevalence of FPTP is a major reason USA politics is dominated by two parties.
- They lack a high profile media presence, rarely able to participate in televised debates.
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Key Values, Ideologies, Traditions and Polciies of the Democrats and Republicans
The Democratic Party
- Enabling state
- Higher taxes to fund social welfare
- Expansion of affordable healthcare
- Pro-choice
- Gun control
- Judicial activism
- Celebration of diversities, expansion of civil rights.
The Republican Party
- Limited government
- Lower taxes, trickle down economics
- Healthcare provision should reflect personal choice and ability to pay
- Civil rights have gone far enough
- Pro-life
- Second Amendemnt upheld
- Orignialist nature of Supreme Court
- Traditional identity tainted by multiculturalism
- Climate sceptics.
Given the country’s size, parties had to be broad and ‘big tent’
- New Deal coalition of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Now, they are largely diametrically opposing