2
Why Parties?
Burke
Edmund Burke, 1770
"body of men united for promoting by their joint endeavors the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed"
presumes the nation agrees on the goals but not the means
Downs
Anthony Downs, 1957
"team of men seeking to control the governing apparatus by gaining office in a duly constituted election"
presumption of rationality
What does Aldrich say?
He takes a more Downsian approach while outlining the responsilities parties play in the American political system
"My basic argument is..." (Aldrich 2011, 5).
Party as...
Parties as...
Diverse coalitions
Responsible Party Thesis
Competion for offices
What does Aldrich add as a fourth view?
Problems
When rational actors have to work together
Ambition
Balancing
Collective Action
Rational actors join organizations to obtain a non-excludable
public good they cannot obtain on their own (Olson 1965).
The cost of obtaining the good for each member must be manageable enough, and when this happens, the collective good is obtained and no one is excluded from it (Olson 1965).
The Two-Party System as Equilibrium
Truman (1951):
- interest groups form primarily in opposition to other interest groups
- counteract influence in their respective political domains
"Each of the parties is in equlibrium when elections are competitive" (Aldrich 2011, 25).
Why form?
Why do politicians turn to parties?
Collective action is costly, but worth it (because what is the alternative?)
Electoral alliances yield legislative alliances,
and legislative alliances can
either pad or strip electoral
alliances
House 2006
House 2008
House 2010
How does the Tea Party fit in here?
WHY?
When Party Choices Go Astray?
Party reputation (Cox and McCubbins 1993)
Conditional Party Government (Aldrich and Rohde 1991)
Directional Voting (Rabinowitz and MacDonald 1989)
Party is the answer
The Institution to End all Institutions
“an organization, establishment, foundation, society, or the like, devoted to the promotion of a particular cause or program” (dictionary.reference.com)
Provide formal constraints on behavior (Kollman 2016)
“an organization that manages potential conflicts between political rivals, helps them to find mutually acceptable solutions, and enforces the society’s collective agreements” (Kernell, Jacobson, and Kousser 2016, 787).