Political Parties

The General Election and the Electoral College

The general election campaign revolves around the operation of the Electoral College. Hopefully, all of you are familiar with the basics of its operation!

The Electoral College

The Electoral College is a very accurate reflection of the basic characteristics
of American elections (regularity, unit rule, and plurality)!

How is the Electoral College an example of regularity?

(Ans.: Election his held on the first Tuesday after the
first Monday in November every four years!)

How is the Electoral College an example of unit rule?

(Ans:  if a candidate gets a plurality of votes in a state

she/he gets all of the state's electoral votes!)

How is the Electoral College an example of plurality?

(Ans:  if a candidate gets one more vote than anyone else,

he/she wins the state and all of its electoral votes.

Win by 1 vote or 99% - 1%, the result is still the same)

(Note:  Plurality is replaced by the concept of majority when it comes

to total EC votes needed to win--there you need a majority--270 of the 538 cast!)

How does this affect candidate strategy in presidential elections?

Does it favor small or large states?

Role of multi-state media markets

Proposals for Reform of the Electoral College

Traditionally there have been three general proposals for
the reform of the Electoral College.

See how these relate to alternative election methods discussed earlier in the course?

1) proportional plan

apportion state Electoral College votes in proportion to candidate percentage

carry out to three decimal places?

2) district plan

treat each congressional district as a unit and award 2 votes
(Senate seat equivalent) to candidate who captures a plurality in the state

3) popular vote plan

do away with the EC all together

person with most votes wins?

40% rule?

Runoff? As in recent French presidential election?

Other method of voting so runoff not necessary?

What would the impact of each of these plans be in a close election? Presidential Election in 2000?

Patterns of Presidential Elections

Remember the discussion in Maisel Chapter 2?

Political scientists have explored the history of party systems
and presidential elections and generally concluded
that at least 5 distinct historical eras can be identified.

These different eras identify different parties,
different issues, and key elections which have fostered new eras.

History of US Party Systems

System	Period	Leading Parties	Events/Issues
1	1788-1824	Federalists Dem/Reps	Parties evolving/  Power of the national government
2	1824-1854/60	Whigs Democrats	Conventions/ Economic Issues Slavery Regional Conflict
3	1854/60-1896	Republicans Democrats	Urban machines and political bosses/ Reconstruction States' Rights
4	1896-1932	Republicans  Democrats	nonpartisan election weaking of congressional parties/ Regulation of big business
5	1932-1968?	Republicans  Democrats	Race/ Civil Rights Communism Vietnam Welfare state politics
6?	1968-present	Republicans Democrats	Economy Quality of Life

One of the most interesting approaches to the study of presidential elections is

Walter Dean Burnham's:

Theory of Critical Elections

Burnham argues that one should view elections in light of two questions:

1) did the party in the majority (the party with the dominant percentage
of identifiers) remain in power or lose?

2) did the fundamental issues remain the same or change?

Answering these two questions leads to a four-fold typology:

	party in power WINS	party in power LOSES
issues remain  THE SAME	MAINTAINING	DEVIATING
issues CHANGE	RECONFIRMING	REALIGNING

Dealignment??

Some question whether Burnham's approach is still valid, 

as elections since 1968 have often yielded "divided government"