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POLITICAL PARTIES - Coggle Diagram
POLITICAL PARTIES
two party domination:
- traditionally 'big tents'.
- over past 20 years, parties have become narrower, more ideological and increasingly distinct from each other - hyper-partishanship.
- us parties are much less centralised than the UK.
- local state parties are very important and primaries weaken the power of the national parties.
- there remain significant divisions and factions within both.
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CHANGES SINCE THE 1960S
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evidence for party decline:
- growth in split ticket voting up until the 1980s.
- rise of primaries - reduce control of 'party machine' in candidate selection.
- party leaders in congress and even presidents often struggle to persuade legislators to tow the party line.
- growth of candidate-centred campaigning - parties rarely mentioned in ads.
- rise of pressure groups as an alternative focus for political participation.
evidence for party renewal:
- decline in split ticket voting in recent years - a record low in 2020.
- democrats have unelected super-delegates comprising 20% of delegates at their national nominating convention.
- growing party unity/partisanship in both congressional votes generally and senate confirmation votes.
- strong influence of many pressure groups on particular parties - NRA on republicans and labour unions on democrats.
FACTIONS WITHIN PARTIES
key party factions
REPUBLICANS:
- freedom caucus - very conservative, especially fiscally.
- the Tuesday Group - an informal group of around 50 moderate republican congress members.
DEMOCRATS:
- blue dogs - fiscally conservative.
- congressional progressive caucus - most progressive and left leaning democrats in congress.
significance of party factions:
- can make it harder for party leadership to push through a measure when in power - e.g. as seen with Trumpcare in 2018.
- factions are less significant for opposition.
- they reflect the diversity of the usa and 'big tent' politics.
- often highlight different political traditions of americas regions - most conservative democrats (like Krysten Sinema) come from south or midwest whilst moderate republicans (Susan Collins) are more likely to come from north east.
- fluctuating fortunes of various factions can reflect the overall direction of the party and recent polarisation - e.g. Blue Dog numbers have decreased significantly in recent years from 59 in 2008 to 19 in 2021.
PARTY ORGANISATION
- us parties more decentralised and loosely organised than uk.
- state parties play an important role.
- reflect federalism of country.
- so some see the system as an 100 party system.
involvement in candidate selection:
- us parties play little role due to process of primaries.
- primaries can see certain candidates being endorsed and publicly supported by leading politicians but this does not always translate into success.
leaders:
- there are no leaders in the same manner as in the uk.
- there are party leaders in house and senate.
- some may argue this is an example of the informal separation of powers principle.
- there are chairs of the national bodies - the Republican National Committee and the Democrat National Committee - but these posts are not influential or of that high profile.
elections:
- both parties have 'hill committees'.
- these are bodies that work for the election of more republicans/democrats to the house and senate - e.g. National Republican Congressional Committee.
- committees primarily seek to raise funds for strong candidates in competitive races or those considered vulnerable to defeat by the opposition.
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