political parties US
- Created by: elizabeth
- Created on: 16-01-14 15:47
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- Political Parties US
- 1. history of 2 main parties
- 6 big issues
- form of government, democracy, slavery, economy, civil rights, role of federal government
- 6 big issues
- 2. major parties and ideology
- liberal- 89%/10% conservative- 20%/78% McCain Obama 2008
- poll do you think there are any important differences in what reps and dems stand for- 44% no 46% yes
- 3. the polarisation of american parties
- since the Reagan era polarisation has been occurring, this is due to the end of the cold war as parties were not united by a common goal,
- 'the voting card we have in our pocket belong to our people back home not to the party leaders'- Allen Boyd D florida'
- 4.organisational structure of parties
- weak organisation of parties they have a bottom up structure,
- they hold the national conventions once a year.
- become more important both now have head quarters in Washington.
- 5. 2 party system
- combined vote- 1992-81%, 1996-91%,2000-97%, 2004+08-99%
- reason for 2 party sysyem
- voting system
- they cover a large ideological spectrum
- primary elections help make the major parties more responsive to the electorate minimising need for protest voting
- 6. third parties
- 1992 Ross Perot 19% and 1996 9% Ralph Nader green party 2.7
- third party difficulties
- first past post in all elections
- regional do well Wallace 1968 45 electoral college with 13% votes concentrated in southern states. In 1992Ross Perot was spread out won no electoral college but 19%
- matching funds
- major candidates qualify by raising $5000 in 20 states in $250 but third parties qualify by only winning at least 5% of the vote in the previous election.
- ballot access laws
- Tennessee is easy. John Anderson gathered 1.2 million signatures and $3 million to do it
- lack resources
- lack media cover
- in 2000 Nader was not on TV debate with bush and Gore
- suffer from well known well qualified candidates
- major parties portray them as extremists
- reps quoted "if you like Hitler you'll love Wallace"
- major parties adopt their policies
- first past post in all elections
- 7. theories of party decline
- 4 factors
- lost control over presidential candidate chosen by primaries. In late 60s chosen by party bosses in smoke filled rooms
- parties have lost role as communicator between voters and politicians today use rallies
- in tv era become more candidate or issue focused rather than party people vote based on this
- split ticket voting- vote for rep congressman and dep president
- in 2008- dem pres- 9 rep pres- 10 39 dem, 29 ind, 32 rep
- david broder 1972 the partys over the failure of american politics. denis brogan- parties are like 2 bottles with different labels, both empty
- 4 factors
- 8. theories of party renewal
- the theory which suggests parties are becoming more significant in elections and in congress
- reasons for party renewal
- all exaggeration may be less important than they used to be. the death of rep party was reported after watergate back in white house 6 yrs later .
- super delegates control over candidate selection.
- by 2000 accounted for 20% of dem vote in national convention. this was significant in selection of Obama over Clinton 2008
- soft money
- used the finance loop holes in get out the vote activities and party building activities
- nationalizing of campaigns
- contract with america- policy document rep campaign to win house of rep in 94 mid term election it laid out 10 policies the reps promised to bring a vote on in the first 100 days if they won they did inc anti crime leg, welfare reform
- 1. history of 2 main parties
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