Party decline or renewal?
Introduction:
• A theory that has stemmed from David Broder’s ‘The Party’s Over’ (1972) and Ruth Scott’s
‘Parties in Crisis’ (1979)
• The idea that parties no longer serve their purpose, and their functions have been replaced by
others
Parties have become more ideologically distinct (renewal)
• With the polarisation of voters and the polarising factions within the parties, they have arguably
become better defined ideologically, and thus serve their purpose better
• Bipartisan compromise has fallen significantly, and the rise of the Tea Party in the GOP and
the growth of millennial voters in the Democrats have created two distinct parties
• “Partisanship is a significant pointer to party renewal” – Bennett
• The Blue Dog Democrats have seen their membership fall to just 14 Congressmen, and they
were the driving force of compromise and the middle-way
• Party votes at a record high in 2011 of 76%, and in the 113th Congress, House Republicans
voted with their caucus 93% of the time
• Better functioning of the representative and accountability/checking other branches power –
hence gridlock (shows the parties are holding each other to account)
• “Ideologically distinct, internally unified, and set on destroying the other” – Thomas Mann
Evaluation:
• The emergence of movements and factions
o People are becoming increasingly likely to associate with movements and factions
rather than parties, shown by the rise in independent and swing voters to 40-45%
o Through co-optation, parties have become umbrellas for these factions, and have thus
lost their ideological identity – this makes maintaining a loyal coalition of voters
significantly harder
§ “Like two bottles with different labels, both empty” – Brogan
o Voter apathy has reduced voter turnout to a 72-year low in 2014 of just 36.4%, and
people are turning to movements as a means of changing government
o E.E. Schattschneider argues that interest groups set party agendas e.g. the NRA and
the AARP
• Parties have become more unrepresentative
o The 113th Congress was the most unrepresentative in recent history, with just 48 black
and 31 Hispanic Congressmen, and only 12% women in the Senate and 20% in the House
o Parties have therefore lost their integrity, and people find it hard to associate with
something they don’t consider to be representative of their interests
o E.g. despite 91% of the public backing the extension of the Brady Checks, the
Republican Congress rejected them as they were being lobbied by the NRA (despite 74% of
NRA members supporting the bill)
The rise of PACs and money (decline)
• Money has become immensely significant on members’ voting behaviour, especially as party
funding efforts have been limited (McCain Feingold Act banned soft money)
• Parties have thus become dependent on PAC funding – “Parties have come to rely on PAC
contributions to finance electoral campaigns” (Heaney) à it is this dependency that warrants
subservience
• As a result, PACs have engrained themselves as insiders – “PACs have become an informal
part of the party’s whipping operation” (Heaney)
• “PACs are often seen as having rendered parties obsolete” – Harrison
Evaluation:
• PAC influence is overstated
o The growth of soft money meant parties retained some input in funding, and importantly, it
is illegal to bribe candidates (Duke Cunningham) and the Open Government and Honest
Leadership Act of 2007 declared better transparency in funding
o Most significantly, PACs play a supplementary role in the campaign process:
§ They don’t decide the platform
Introduction:
• A theory that has stemmed from David Broder’s ‘The Party’s Over’ (1972) and Ruth Scott’s
‘Parties in Crisis’ (1979)
• The idea that parties no longer serve their purpose, and their functions have been replaced by
others
Parties have become more ideologically distinct (renewal)
• With the polarisation of voters and the polarising factions within the parties, they have arguably
become better defined ideologically, and thus serve their purpose better
• Bipartisan compromise has fallen significantly, and the rise of the Tea Party in the GOP and
the growth of millennial voters in the Democrats have created two distinct parties
• “Partisanship is a significant pointer to party renewal” – Bennett
• The Blue Dog Democrats have seen their membership fall to just 14 Congressmen, and they
were the driving force of compromise and the middle-way
• Party votes at a record high in 2011 of 76%, and in the 113th Congress, House Republicans
voted with their caucus 93% of the time
• Better functioning of the representative and accountability/checking other branches power –
hence gridlock (shows the parties are holding each other to account)
• “Ideologically distinct, internally unified, and set on destroying the other” – Thomas Mann
Evaluation:
• The emergence of movements and factions
o People are becoming increasingly likely to associate with movements and factions
rather than parties, shown by the rise in independent and swing voters to 40-45%
o Through co-optation, parties have become umbrellas for these factions, and have thus
lost their ideological identity – this makes maintaining a loyal coalition of voters
significantly harder
§ “Like two bottles with different labels, both empty” – Brogan
o Voter apathy has reduced voter turnout to a 72-year low in 2014 of just 36.4%, and
people are turning to movements as a means of changing government
o E.E. Schattschneider argues that interest groups set party agendas e.g. the NRA and
the AARP
• Parties have become more unrepresentative
o The 113th Congress was the most unrepresentative in recent history, with just 48 black
and 31 Hispanic Congressmen, and only 12% women in the Senate and 20% in the House
o Parties have therefore lost their integrity, and people find it hard to associate with
something they don’t consider to be representative of their interests
o E.g. despite 91% of the public backing the extension of the Brady Checks, the
Republican Congress rejected them as they were being lobbied by the NRA (despite 74% of
NRA members supporting the bill)
The rise of PACs and money (decline)
• Money has become immensely significant on members’ voting behaviour, especially as party
funding efforts have been limited (McCain Feingold Act banned soft money)
• Parties have thus become dependent on PAC funding – “Parties have come to rely on PAC
contributions to finance electoral campaigns” (Heaney) à it is this dependency that warrants
subservience
• As a result, PACs have engrained themselves as insiders – “PACs have become an informal
part of the party’s whipping operation” (Heaney)
• “PACs are often seen as having rendered parties obsolete” – Harrison
Evaluation:
• PAC influence is overstated
o The growth of soft money meant parties retained some input in funding, and importantly, it
is illegal to bribe candidates (Duke Cunningham) and the Open Government and Honest
Leadership Act of 2007 declared better transparency in funding
o Most significantly, PACs play a supplementary role in the campaign process:
§ They don’t decide the platform
