Third Party Digitization Solicitation From The Library of Congress
Day 16 - Dynamics of Party Change in Congress
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Transcript of Day 16 - Dynamics of Party Change in Congress
Day 16 – Dynamics of Party Change In Congress
July 25, 2013
Realigning or Critical Elections “Even the most fleeting inspection of American
elections suggests the existence of a category of elections in which voters are, at least from impressionistic evidence, unusually deeply concerned, in which the extent of electoral involvement is relatively quite high, and in which the decisive results of the voting reveal a sharp alteration of the pre-existing cleavage within the electorate.” V.O. Key in “A Theory of Critical Elections” (1955)
What do they lead to? Party Systems
Parties’ issue positions shift along with voters’ behavior every few decades.
Periodic build-up of societal pressure (roughly once a generation) overthrows “politics as usual” system.
How Do Party Alignments Change Over Time? Realignment Theory (Key 1955, Burnham
1970) Issue Evolution (Carmines and Stimson 1989)
Certain issues can restructure the political system (e.g. race)
Party Position Change (Karol 2009)
Election of 1800 Federalist Party: John Adams, Charles C.
Pickney http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeHepBjAyS0&li
st=PL0FwQejmr_tdPzPFRpOP8zIwj-Bf8NiYk
Democratic-Republican Party: Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQmtEc-6E-Y
Election of 1828 Whig Party: John Q. Adams (Incumbent) Democratic Party: Andrew Jackson Rematch of 1824
The “Corrupt Bargain”
Source: http://www.270towin.com/1824_Election/
Jacksonian Democracy Expanded suffrage
Universal white male suffrage Manifest Destiny Patronage Strict Constructionism
Federal government of limited powers’ Laissez-fair Economics Anti-Banking
The Secession Crisis of the 1850s “Men had been talking more and more since
1852 of a great new party that would not only unite Whigs and Free-Soilers but bring in half or more of the northern Democrats who could not stomach their party’s constant compromises with slavery.”
- James Sundquist (1983)
1850
1852
1854
1856
1858
1860
Republican Party Platform http
://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29620
Results by State http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/datagraph.php?
year=1860&fips=0&f=0&off=0&elect=0
2012 in Comparison