Download Political Parties and the Electorate Federalist 10: James Madison

Political Parties and the
Electorate
Chapter 4
Prepared by Teresa Nevárez, El Paso Community College
© 2008 Pearson Education, Inc.
Federalist 10: James Madison
 A well constructed Union will be able to break and control the
violence of factions
 Public good is disregarded in the conflicts of rival parties
 Measures are often decided by the superior force of an
interested and overbearing majority
 A factious spirit has tainted our public administration with
unsteadiness and injustice
 A faction is a small or large number of citizens who are united
and act by some common impulse of passion or of interest
adverse to the rights of other citizens or the community
 Two methods of controlling its evil effects
– Removing its causes (remedy worse than disease)
– Controlling its effects (impractical)
Federalist 10: James Madison
 Men have a propensity to fall into animosities
 Most common source of faction is unequal distribution of
property
 A landed interest grows up of necessity in a civilized nation
 The causes of faction cannot be removed but its effects can be
controlled: liberty and unequal distribution of land
 To secure the public good, a majority must be included in a
faction
 Neither moral nor religious motives can be relied on as an
adequate control
 A representative government should safeguard against the
plots of a few
– There should be a minimum and maximum number of representatives to
make sure they will not be controlled by the few or that the number is so
large that it allows for the confusion of a multitude
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Party Government by E.E. Schattschneider
 The Constitution had a dual attitude
– Established a system of party tolerance
– Created a governmental structure designed to make parties ineffective
 In a republic, parties are tolerated but are invited to strangle
themselves in the machinery of government
 Founders were unaware of the benefits of parties as
instruments of a popular government
 It is wrong to assume that people have only conflicting interests
 In a democracy, the people move from controversy to
agreement to forgetfulness
 People have many interests, and interests compete with
interests
 Interests cannot be mobilized perfectly
The Party Model of Government
Background: The framers stressed the importance of
limiting majority rule. The evil factions, i.e. parties and
interest groups, had to be subdued by the national
interest. In 18th-century terms, political parties and
interests groups were to be looked at with apprehension
since their goals were selfish by nature. Post-18th
century proponents of democratic and party government
support the belief in the rationality of man and discussion
through the mechanism of political parties. They would
argue that our weak party system is a major deficiency
and barrier to effective democratic leadership.
Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System
 Political parties are indispensable instruments of
government
– Provide electorate with proper alternatives
– Bring continuation to the relationship of ideas about
liberty, majority rule, and leadership
 American party system has been slow in
responding to public interests
 Parties must provide direction over the government
as a whole
– Bring forth programs to which they commit and are fully
accountable to the public
 Parties must be viewed as agencies of the
electorate
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Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System
 Dangers of Inaction:
– American people may go too far for the safety of constitutional
government
– Shift excessive responsibility to the president
– Public cynicism will grow
– Disintegration of the two major parties
– Incapacity of the two parties to provide consistent action may rally
support for extremist parties
– Continued alienation between voters and both major parties
Toward a Responsible Party System? (Arthur Paulson)
The responsible party model
 Critics of this current party system only see decay and the
end of realignment
 Speculation that the umbrella parties will be replaced by a
responsible party system
Three characteristics for responsible party model:
 It requires a functional fusion of powers between the
executive and the legislative
– Executive and legislative branches must be led by the same party
– Bicameralism reduces its effectiveness
– Unified governments are more productive
Toward a Responsible Party System? (Arthur Paulson)
 Responsible parties present clear ideological and
programmatic alternatives
– American parties are historically umbrella parties, non-ideological
coalitions of factions with diverse interests
– American parties are becoming increasingly engaged in interest
articulation
– Nationalization of political parties facilitates the development of
responsible parties
 The executive and legislative branches have the same
electorate
– The separation of powers system separates the electoral processes
and staggers elections, creating a divided government
– American political parties have temporarily resembled responsible
parties, but we do not have a party government
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Divided We Govern (David Mayhew)
 Today’s voters prefer divided control that provides checks and
balances
 Divided control is not a new phenomenon
 Divided control over government does not necessarily result in
deadlock and antagonisms between the executive and the
legislature, but rather congressional oversight
 Ideological coherence has happened under unified and divided
control governments
 There is no statistical relationship between divided party control and
deficit financing
 There is a historical tendency of Congress to follow the lead of the
president on fiscal policies regardless of whether government is
under unified or divided control
 Plenty of historical examples where coordinated efforts took place
during divided control
 Separation of powers nudges officials toward deliberation,
compromise, and super-majority outcomes
Functions and Types of Elections
Background: Elections are a part of the democratic
process. They reflect popular attitudes toward
governmental parties, policies, etc. There are 4
types of elections:
 Maintaining elections: patterns of previous elections
persist
 Critical elections: result in the permanent
realignment of the electorate
 Deviating elections: temporary shifts in the
electorate
 Reinstating elections: the return to normal voting
patterns
A Theory of Critical Elections (V.O. Key, Jr.)
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The electorate is the principal organ of governance
An election is a formal act of collective decision making
Many factors affect voting as well as subsequent behavior
Central to the concept of critical elections is realignment
within the electorate, both sharp and durable
 Particular elections rarely form a perfect match for any
particular concept
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Democratic Practice and Democratic Theory
(Berelson, Lazarsefeld, and McPhee)
The individual voter does not possess the characteristics that
the theory of democracy requires him to have
 Knowledge
– A democratic citizen is expected to be well informed about politics
– He is poorly informed about simple and proximate subjects
 Principle
– Voting must be effected, having his own interests in mind as well as
those of the community
– Traditionally, individuals vote the way trusted people around them
are voting
 Rationality
– Voting decisions must be reached through the exercise of rational
judgment and knowledge of consequences and alternatives
– Voting is characterized more by faith than by conviction
Democratic Practice and Democratic Theory
(Berelson, Lazarsefeld, and McPhee)
It seems remarkable that democracies have survived the
centuries; but the answer lies in the defectiveness of the
classic theory and its concentration on the individual citizen
Requirements for the System:
 Other features are required for democracies to survive:
–
–
–
–
–
Limited intensity of conflict
Rate of change must be restrained
Stability in the social and economic structure must be kept
Pluralistic social organization must exist
A basic consensus must bind the contending parties
 Involvement and Indifference
– Interested voters vote more but also are less open to persuasion and
less likely to change
– Low interest provides maneuvering room for political shifts
Democratic Practice and Democratic Theory
(Berelson, Lazarsefeld, and McPhee)
 Stability and Flexibility
– The least partisan and the least interested voters are more open to
adjustments of attitudes and tastes
 Progress and Conservation
– The heterogeneous electorate provides a balance between
liberalism and conservatism
 Consensus and Cleavage
– Pluralism makes for enough consensus to hold the system together
and enough cleavage to make it move
 Individualism and Collectivism
– The individual does not have a great deal of detailed information;
however, he has picked up crucial general information as part of his
social learning
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The Responsible Electorate (V.O. Key, Jr.)
 It is an error to assume that because a candidate wins, the
majority of the electorate shares his views
 Election returns establish only that the winner attracted a
majority of votes
 A candidate may win despite his tactics and appeals rather
than because of them
 The invention of the sample survey revolutionized the study
of politics as well as the management of political campaigns
 Many variables impact individuals’ decisions even when
they have common backgrounds
 Theories of how voters behave acquire importance because
of the potential and real effects on candidates, not on voters
 Voters are not fools
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