William_T._Bianco,_David_T._Canon]_American_Polit

270 Chapter 8Chapter 8 || Political PartiesPolitical Parties

As this description suggests, the party organization has a fluid structure rather than

a rigid hierarchy.^15 Individuals and groups work with a party’s leaders and candidates

when they share the same goals, but unless they are paid party employees, they are

under no obligation to do so. (Even paid party workers can, of course, quit rather than

work for a candidate or a cause they oppose.)

Party Brand Names The Republican and Democratic party

organizations have well-established “brand names.” Because

the parties stand for different things, in terms of both their

preferred government policies and their ideological leanings, the

party names themselves become a shorthand way of providing

information to voters about the parties’ candidates.^16 Hearing

the term “Democrat” or “Republican” calls to mind ideas about

what kinds of positions the members of each party support, what

kinds of candidates each party runs, and how these candidates

will probably vote if they are elected to office. Citizens can use

these brand names as a cue to decide whom to vote for in an

election. (See Chapter 9 for more information on voting cues.)

Differences in the details of party brand names also create

opportunities for issue ownership: candidates from a party tend to

concentrate their campaigns on issues that are part of their party’s

brand name and ignore issues that belong to the other party. Figure

8.1 shows one way to measure issue ownership: by surveying

citizens who identify with each party about their policy priorities.

Limits of the Party Organization The critical thing to understand about the

Democratic and Republican party organizations is that they are not hierarchies. No

one person or group in charge determines what either organization does—which often

makes them look disorganized. Because the RNC and DNC are organized in the same

way, we can consider the example of Tom Perez, the chair of the DNC. He has some

influence over who works at the DNC. However, the party organization’s issue positions

are set not by Perez’s employees but by DNC members from all 50 states. The individual

committee members are appointed by their state party organizations, so they do not

owe their jobs to Perez—in fact, they can remove him from office if they like. If Perez and

the committee disagree, he can’t force the committee members to do what he wants.

The national party organization is also unable to force state and local parties to

share its positions on issues or comply with other requests. State and local parties

make their own decisions about state- and local-level candidates and issue positions.

The national committee can ask nicely, cajole, or even threaten to withhold funds. But

if a state party organization, an independent group, or even an individual candidate

disagrees with the national committee, there’s little the national committee can do to

force compliance. For example, Republican leaders could not discourage challengers

from running in primaries against their preferred Senate candidates in 2018. Nor could

they stop Donald Trump from winning the presidential nomination in 2016—much less

control his behavior in office.

The Party in Government

The party in government consists of elected officials holding national, state, and

local offices who took office as candidates of a particular party. They are the public

face of the party, somewhat like the players on a sports team. Although players are only

one part of a sports franchise—along with owners, coaches, trainers, and support

issue ownership

The theory that voters associate

certain issues or issue positions with

certain parties (like Democrats and

support for government-provided

health insurance).

I am not a member of an organized

political party. I am a Democrat.

— Will Rogers

Party organizations at the local level,

such as the Ohio county Democratic

Party meeting shown here, coordinate

support for the party’s candidates, but

they don’t necessarily have to follow the

lead of the national party organization.

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