Politics of the United States

Main article: United States presidential election, 2004

Summary of the 2 November 2004 United States presidential election results

Candidates		Party	Votes	%	Electoral votes
	George W. Bush	Republican Party	62,040,610	50.73%	286
	John Kerry	Democratic Party	59,028,444	48.27%	251
	John Edwards1				1
	Ralph Nader	Independent, Reform Party	465,650	0.38%	-
	Michael Badnarik	Libertarian Party	397,265	0.32%	-
	Michael Peroutka	Constitution Party	143,630	0.12%	-
	David Cobb	Green Party	119,859	0.10%	-
	Other		99,887	0.08%	-
Total			122,295,345	100.0%	538
Voter turnout:   59 %
Source: FEC 2004 Election Results

Main article: United States Senate elections, 2006

e • d Summary of the November 7, 2006 United States Senate election results

Party		Breakdown			Seats			Popular Vote
		Up	Elected	Not Up	2004	2006	+/−	Vote	%
	Democratic Party	17	22	27	44	49	+5	33,929,202	53.91%
	Republican Party	15	9	40	55	49	−6	26,674,169	42.38%
	Independents	1	2	0	1	2	+1	879,032	1.40%
	Libertarian Party	0	0	0	0	0	0	614,629	0.98%
	Green Party	0	0	0	0	0	0	414,660	0.66%
	Constitution Party	0	0	0	0	0	0	132,155	0.21%
	Peace and Freedom Party	0	0	0	0	0	0	117,764	0.19%
	Write-in	0	0	0	0	0	0	13,567	0.02%
	Socialist Workers Party	0	0	0	0	0	0	10,463	0.02%
	Personal Choice Party	0	0	0	0	0	0	9,089	0.01%
	Socialist Party USA	0	0	0	0	0	0	2,490	0.00%
	Others	0	0	0	0	0	0	141,074	0.22%
Total		33	33	67	100	100	0	62,938,294	100%
Voter turnout:   29.7 %
Sources: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Elections, United States Elections Project at George Mason University

Main article: United States House of Representatives elections, 2006

e • d Summary of the November 7, 2006 United States House of Representatives election results

Party		Seats				Popular Vote
		2004	2006	+/−	%	Vote	%	+/−
	Democratic Party	202	233	+31	53.6%	42,082,311	52.0%	+5.4%
	Republican Party	232	202	−30	46.4%	35,674,808	44.1%	–5.1%
	Independent	1	0	-1	0%	436,279	0.5%	-0.1%
	Libertarian Party	-	-	-	-	650,614	0.8%	-0.1%
	Green Party	-	-	-	-	293,606	0.4%	+0.1%
	Working Families Party	-	-	-	-	164,638	0.2%	+0.1%
	Independence Party	-	-	-	-	135,027	0.2%	0.0%
	Constitution Party	-	-	-	-	128,655	0.2%	+0.1%
	Reform Party	-	-	-	-	53,862	0.0%	-0.1%
	Other parties	-	-	-	-	210,884	0.3%	-1.5%
Total		435	435	0	100.0%	80,975,537	100.0%	0
Voter turnout:   36.8 %
Sources: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk, Ballot Access News, 2006 Vote for U.S. House

Organization of American political parties

See also: Political party strength in U.S. states

American political parties are more loosely organized than those in other countries. The two major parties, in particular, have no formal organization at the national level that controls membership, activities, or policy positions, though some state affiliates do. Thus, for an American to say that he or she is a member of the Democratic or Republican party, is quite different from a Briton's stating that he or she is a member of the Labour party. In the United States, one can often become a "member" of a party, merely by stating that fact. In some U.S. states, a voter can register as a member of one or another party and/or vote in the primary election for one or another party, but such participation does not restrict one's choices in any way; nor does it give a person any particular rights or obligations with respect to the party, other than possibly allowing that person to vote in that party's primary elections (elections that determine who the candidate of the party will be). A person may choose to attend meetings of one local party committee one day and another party committee the next day. The sole factor that brings one "closer to the action" is the quantity and quality of participation in party activities and the ability to persuade others in attendance to give one responsibility.

Party identification becomes somewhat formalized when a person runs for partisan office. In most states, this means declaring oneself a candidate for the nomination of a particular party and intent to enter that party's primary election for an office. A party committee may choose to endorse one or another of those who is seeking the nomination, but in the end the choice is up to those who choose to vote in the primary, and it is often difficult to tell who is going to do the voting.

The result is that American political parties have weak central organizations and little central ideology, except by consensus. A party really cannot prevent a person who disagrees with the majority of positions of the party or actively works against the party's aims from claiming party membership, so long as the voters who choose to vote in the primary elections elect that person. Once in office, an elected official may change parties simply by declaring such intent.

At the federal level, each of the two major parties has a national committee (See, Democratic National Committee, Republican National Committee) that acts as the hub for much fund-raising and campaign activities, particularly in presidential campaigns. The exact composition of these committees is different for each party, but they are made up primarily of representatives from state parties, affiliated organizations, and other individuals important to the party. However, the national committees do not have the power to direct the activities of individual members of the party.

When a party controls the White House, the President is party leader and controls the national committee. Otherwise the leadership is diffuse.

Both parties also have separate campaign committees which work to elect candidates at a specific level. The most significant of these are the Hill committees, which work to elect candidates to each house of Congress.

State parties exist in all fifty states, though their structures differ according to state law, as well as party rules at both the national and the state level.

Political pressure groups

Special interest groups advocate the cause of their specific constituency. Business organizations will favor low corporate taxes and restrictions of the right to strike, whereas labor unions will support minimum wage legislation and protection for collective bargaining. Other private interest groups — such as churches and ethnic groups — are more concerned about broader issues of policy that can affect their organizations or their beliefs.

One type of private interest group that has grown in number and influence in recent years is the political action committee or PAC. These are independent groups, organized around a single issue or set of issues, that contribute money to political campaigns for U.S. Congress or the presidency. PACs are limited in the amounts they can contribute directly to candidates in federal elections. There are no restrictions, however, on the amounts PACs can spend independently to advocate a point of view or to urge the election of candidates to office. PACs today number in the thousands.

"The number of interest groups has mushroomed, with more and more of them operating offices in Washington, D.C., and representing themselves directly to Congress and federal agencies," says Michael Schudson in his 1998 book The Good Citizen: A History of American Civic Life. "Many organizations that keep an eye on Washington seek financial and moral support from ordinary citizens. Since many of them focus on a narrow set of concerns or even on a single issue, and often a single issue of enormous emotional weight, they compete with the parties for citizens' dollars, time, and passion."

The amount of money spent by these special interests continues to grow, as campaigns become more and more expensive. Many Americans have the feeling that these wealthy interests — whether corporations or unions or PACs organized to promote a particular point of view — are so powerful that ordinary citizens can do little to counteract their influences.

General developments

See also: History of the United States Republican Party and History of the United States Democratic Party

Many of America's Founding Fathers hated the thought of political parties. They were sure quarreling factions would be more interested in contending with each other than in working for the common good. They wanted individual citizens to vote for individual candidates, without the interference of organized groups — but this was not to be.

By the 1790s, different views of the new country's proper course had already developed, and those who held these opposing views tried to win support for their cause by banding together. The followers of Alexander Hamilton, the Hamiltonian faction, took up the name "Federalist"; they favored a strong central government that would support the interests of commerce and industry. The followers of Thomas Jefferson, the Jeffersonians and then the "Anti-Federalists," took up the name "Democratic-Republicans" they preferred a decentralized agrarian republic in which the federal government had limited power. By 1828, the Federalists had disappeared as an organization, replaced by the Whigs, brought to life in opposition to the election that year of President Andrew Jackson. Jackson's presidency split the Democratic-Republican party: Jacksonians became the Democratic Party and those following the leadership of John Quincy Adams became the "National Republicans." The two-party system, still in existence today, was born. (Note: The National Republicans of John Quincy Adams is not the same party as today's Republican Party.)

In the 1850s, the issue of slavery took center stage, with disagreement in particular over the question of whether or not slavery should be permitted in the country's new territories in the West. The Whig Party straddled the issue and sank to its death after the overwhelming electoral defeat by Franklin Pierce in Presidential Election of 1852. Ex Whigs often joined the new Know Nothing Party or the Republican Party. While the Know Nothing party was short lived, it was the Republicans that would survive the intense politics leading up to the Civil War. The primary Republican policy was that slavery be excluded from all the territories. Just six years later, this new party captured the presidency when Abraham Lincoln won the election of 1860. By then, parties were well established as the country's dominant political organizations, and party allegiance had become an important part of most people's consciousness. Party loyalty was passed from fathers to sons, and party activities — including spectacular campaign events, complete with uniformed marching groups and torchlight parades — were a part of the social life of many communities.

By the 1920s, however, this boisterous folksiness had diminished. Municipal reforms, civil service reform, corrupt practices acts, and presidential primaries to replace the power of politicians at national conventions had all helped to clean up politics.

Development of the two-party system in the United States

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Since the 1790s the country has been run by two major parties. Since the Civil War, they have been the Republican and Democratic parties. Many minor or third political parties appear from time to time. They tend to serve a means to advocate policies that eventually are adopted by the two major political parties, e.g., parties such as the Socialist Party, the Farmer Labor Party and the Populist Party for a few years had considerable local strength, then faded away.

Most officials in America are elected from single-member districts and win office by beating out their opponents in a system for determining winners called first-past-the-post—the one who gets the plurality wins, (which is not the same thing as actually getting a majority of votes). This encourages the two-party system; see Duverger's law.

Another critical factor has been ballot access law. Originally voters went to the polls and publicly stated which candidate they supported. Later on, this developed into a process whereby each political party would create its own ballot and thus the voter would put the party's ballot into the voting box. In the late nineteenth century, states began to adopt the Australian Secret Ballot Method, and it eventually became the national standard. The secret ballot method ensured that the privacy of voters would be protected (hence government jobs could no longer be awarded to loyal voters) and each state would be responsible for creating one official ballot. The fact that state legislatures were dominated by Democrats and Republicans provided these parties an opportunity to pass discriminatory laws against minor political parties, yet such laws did not start to arise until the first Red Scare that hit America after World War I. State legislatures began to enact tough laws that made it harder for minor political parties to run candidates for office by requiring a high number of petition signatures from citizens and decreasing the length of time that such a petition could legally be circulated.

Another factor is the parliamentary system. Third parties thrive under the parliamentary system in which governing coalitions are formed after elections. The United States is not a parliamentary system, and indeed, in the United States, it could be said that coalitions are formed before elections under the umbrella of party organizations.

It should also be noted that while the overwhelming majority of elected officials do identify with a political party, the political parties of the United States are much more individualistic than in other political systems (i.e. in a parliamentary system). More often than not, party members will "toe the line" and support their party's policies, but it is important to note that they are free to vote against their own party and vote with the opposition ("cross the aisle") if a particular policy is counter to the priorities and interests of their constituents. Recent examples of this can be seen in such highly controversial matters as Social Security reform, the federal budget, and some environmental policies.

"In America the same political labels—Democratic and Republican—cover virtually all public officeholders, and therefore most voters are everywhere mobilized in the name of these two parties," says Nelson W. Polsby, professor of political science, in the book New Federalist Papers: Essays in Defense of the Constitution. "Yet Democrats and Republicans are not everywhere the same. Variations—sometimes subtle, sometimes blatant—in the 50 political cultures of the states yield considerable differences overall in what it means to be, or to vote, Democratic or Republican. These differences suggest that one may be justified in referring to the American two-party system as masking something more like a hundred-party system."

Political spectrum of the two major parties

During the 20th century the overall political philosophy of both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party underwent a dramatic shift from their earlier philosophies. From the 1860s to the 1950s the Republican Party was considered to be the more classically liberal of the two major parties and the Democratic Party the more classically conservative/populist of the two.

This changed a great deal with the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal included the founding of Social Security as well as a variety of other federal services and public works projects. Roosevelt's arguable success in the twin crises of the Depression and World War II led to a sort of polarization in national politics, centered around him; this combined with his increasingly liberal policies to turn FDR's Democrats to the left and the Republican Party further rightward.

During the 1950s and the early 1960s both parties essentially expressed a more centrist approach to politics on the national level and had their liberal, moderate, and conservative wings equally influential within both parties.

From the early 1960s, the conservative wing became more dominant in the Republican Party, and the liberal wing became more dominant in the Democratic Party. The 1964 presidential election heralded the rise of the conservative wing among Republicans. The liberal and conservative wings within the Democratic Party were competitive until 1972, when George McGovern's candidacy marked the triumph of the liberal wing. This similarly happened in the Republican Party with the candidacy and later landslide election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, which marked the triumph of the conservative wing.

By the 1980 election, each major party had largely become identified by its dominant political orientation. Although strong showings in the 1990s by reformist independent Ross Perot pushed the major parties to put forth more centrist presidential candidates like Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, polarization in the congress was cemented by the Republican takeover of 1994.

Liberals within the Republican Party and conservatives within the Democratic Party and the Democratic Leadership Council neoliberals have typically fulfilled the roles of so-called political mavericks, radical centrists, or brokers of compromise between the two major parties. They have also helped their respective parties gain in certain regions that might not ordinarily elect a member of that party; the Republican Party has used this approach with centrist Republicans such as Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki, Richard Riordan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The 2006 elections sent many centrist or conservative Democrats to state and federal legislatures including several, notably in Kansas and Montana, who switched parties.

See also

• Federal Government of the United States
• Law of the United States
• Political ideologies in the United States
• Political parties in the United States
  • List of political parties in the United States
  • Democratic Party
  • Republican Party
  • Green Party
  • Libertarian Party
  • Reform Party
  • Constitution Party
  • Socialist Party USA
• Political divisions of the United States
• Canadian and American politics compared
• International Politics of the United States
• Politics of the Southern United States
• Political arguments of gun politics in the United States

Bibliography

• Michael Barone and Richard E. Cohen. The Almanac of American Politics, 2006 (2005) 1920 pages covers every member of Congress and governor in depth.
• Michael Crane, ed. The Political Junkie Handbook (2004)
• George C. Edwards, Martin P. Wattenberg, and Robert L. Lineberry. Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy (12th Edition, 2005)
• Marjorie R. Hershey. Party Politics in America (12th Edition, 2006)
• Marc J. Hetherington and William J. Keefe. Parties, Politics, And Public Policy in America (10th edition, 2006)
• L. Sandy Maisel, ed. Political Parties and Elections in the United States: an Encyclopedia 2 vol (Garland, 1991). (ISBN 0-8240-7975-2)
• L. Sandy Maisel, American Political Parties and Elections: A Very Short Introduction (2007), 144 pp
• Karen O'Connor and Larry J. Sabato. American Government: Continuity and Change (8th Edition, 2006)
• James Q. Wilson and John J. Diiulio. American Government: Institutions and Policies (8th ed. 2000)
• Robert Eisinger, Ph.D., The Evolution of Presidential Polling, Cambridge University Press, 2003.
• "Welcome to the Campaign for America's Future". Retrieved on 2007-06-18.
• "AlterNet: It's Time to Recognize America's Huge Progressive Majority". Retrieved on 2007-06-18.

References

External links

• Outline of the U.S. Government
• Official party websites:
  • Official Democratic Party Web Site
  • Official Republican Party Web Site
  • Official Green Party Web Site
  • Official Libertarian Party Web Site
• CNN Politics

Videos

• Conservative Predominance in the U.S. : A Moment or an Era ? 21 experts from the U.S. and abroad, including former Bush speechwriter David Frum, ponder the future of conservatism. Videos and texts online.

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