The role of political parties in American politics 287government is wasting tax money or enacting bad policies, voters can punish the
party in power by supporting candidates from the party that is currently out of power.
When citizens behave this way, they strengthen the incentive for elected officials
from the party in power to work together to develop policies that address voters’
concerns—on the premise that if they do, voters will reward them with another term
in office. Consider the 2018 midterm elections. Although Republicans lost seats in
the House of Representatives, most Republican incumbents were reelected. Why?
Some were elected from states or districts dominated by Republican identifiers. But
many others were reelected because they campaigned on a platform of changing
policy or because of their efforts to help local businesses; in effect, these candidates
said, “Instead of punishing me for my party affiliation, reward me for working on
you r b eh a l f.”
In the end, reelecting members of the party in power despite a poor economy or
other troubles makes sense given how American political parties are organized and
their lack of control over individual officeholders. Of course, insofar as incumbent
members of the party in power present themselves as loyal party members and cast
votes in accordance with the wishes of party leaders, they will increase the chances that
their constituents will take account of their party label when casting their votes—which
will help them get reelected in good times but will increase their chances of defeat when
conditions turn against their party.Minor Parties
So far, this chapter has focused on the major American political parties, the Republicans
and the Democrats, and paid less attention to other party organizations. The reason
is that minor political parties in America are so minor that they are generally not
significant players on the political stage. Many such parties exist, but few run candidates
in more than a handful of races and very few minor-party candidates win political
office. Few Americans identify with minor parties, and most of these parties exist for
only a relatively short period.
Even so, you may think we are giving minor parties too little attention. Consider Jill
Stein and Gary Johnson, who ran as the Green and Libertarian party candidates for
president in 2016, winning, respectively, 1.1 percent and 3.3 percent of the popular vote.
If the votes received by these two candidates had gone to Democrat Hillary Clinton
instead, Clinton would have won Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Florida—
and the presidency.
However, the size of the minor-party vote in 2016 doesn’t so much highlight the
importance of minor parties as it illustrates the closeness of the 2016 presidential
election. If Stein and Johnson had not run, Clinton might have received enough
additional support to win. But given that Trump’s margin of victory in the states listed
above was so small, any number of seemingly minor events (rain in some areas and
sunshine in others, or some small number of additional pro-Clinton ads) could have
had the same effect.
Even in terms of lower offices, minor-party candidates typically attract only meager
support. While the Libertarian Party claims to have over 150 officeholders, many of
these officials hold unelected positions such as seats on county planning boards or ran
unopposed for relatively minor offices.^35
Looking back in history, some minor-party candidates for president have
attracted a substantial percentage of citizens’ votes. George Wallace ran as the
candidate of the American Independent Party in 1968, receiving about 13 percent of
the popular vote nationwide. Ross Perot, the Reform Party candidate for president inFull_09_APT_64431_ch08_262-295.indd 287 16/11/18 1:41 PM