Lesson 43 of 1524
Political Parties
A party’s first job is to win office, not merely to publish a list of ideas.
Practice this chapterA party platform states what the party says it will do. Candidates do not treat every line as a binding promise, but the platform is the public record of the coalition.
A third party can change the debate, and it can spoil a close race by drawing votes from a major candidate. Under plurality rules it rarely becomes a lasting major party.
Duverger’s law
Plurality elections in single-member districts tend to produce two parties
Votes that cannot win a seat drift toward the two labels that can.
Worked example
One party holds the White House. The other party holds a majority in the House and in the Senate. What is this arrangement called, and what does it change about lawmaking?
- 1Compare the party that holds the presidency with the party that organizes Congress.
- 2They are not the same. That split is divided government.
- 3A bill still must pass both chambers and then be signed, or a veto must be overridden.
- 4The president and the congressional majority do not share a platform, so agreement takes a bargain across parties, and stalemate is more likely.
Result: Divided government. Laws require a cross-party bargain.
Why. Divided government is a fact about who holds which institution. It does not change the constitutional steps. It changes how hard those steps are to complete.
Polarization is the distance between parties. Sorting is voters lining up with one party. A sorted public can look polarized even before elites move.
Practice margin
This chapter
A fresh set from this chapter only. Choose 10 or 20. Multiple choice and fill-in, with no repeat inside the set.