156 PART Two • The PolITIcs of AmeRIcAn DemocRAcy
National Committee
A standing committee of
a national political party
established to direct and
coordinate party activities
between national party
conventions.
State Central
Committee
The principal organized
structure of each political
party within each state.
This committee is
responsible for carrying
out policy decisions of the
party’s state convention.
Patronage
The practice of rewarding
faithful party workers and
followers with government
employment and contracts.party members who care enough to vote in a primary. In addition, the primaries generally
pit presidential candidates against one another on intraparty issues. Competition within
each party tends to pull candidates away from the center, and delegates even more so.The national committee. At the national convention, each of the parties formally
chooses a national standing committee, elected by the individual state parties. This
national committee directs and coordinates party activities during the following four
years. One of the jobs of the national committee is to ratify the presidential nominee’s
choice of a national chairperson, who in principle acts as the spokesperson for the party.
The national chairperson and the national committee plan the next campaign and the next
convention, obtain financial contributions, and publicize the national party.The state Party organization. Because every state party is unique, it is impossible to
describe what an “average” state political party is like. Nonetheless, state parties have sev-
eral organizational features in common. Each state party has a chairperson, a committee,
and a number of local organizations. In theory, the role of the state central committee—
the principal org anized structure of each political party within each state—is similar in the
various states. The committee has responsibility for carrying out the policy decisions of the
party’s state convention. The committee also has control over the use of party campaign
funds during political campaigns. Usually, the state central committee has little, if any,
influence on party candidates once they are elected.local Party machinery: The Grassroots. The lowest layer of party machinery is the
local organization, supported by district leaders, precinct or ward captains, and party
workers. In the 1800s, the institution of patronage—rewarding the party faithful with
government jobs or contracts—held the local organization together. For immigrants and
the poor, the political machine often furnished important services and protections.
The last big-city local political machine to exercise substantial power was run by
Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley (1955–1976), who was also an important figure in
national Democratic politics. City machines are now dead, mostly because their function
of providing social services (and reaping the reward of votes) has been taken over by state
and national agencies.
Local political organizations still provide the foot soldiers of politics—individuals who
pass out literature and get out the vote on Election Day, which can be crucial in local
elections. In many regions, local Democratic and Republican organizations still exercise
some patronage, such as awarding courthouse jobs, contracts for street repair, and other
lucrative construction contracts. The constitutionality of awarding—or not awarding—
contracts on the basis of political affiliation has been subject to challenge, however. The
Supreme Court has ruled that failing to hire or firing individuals because of their political
affiliation is an infringement of these individuals’ First Amendment rights to free expres-
sion.^2 Local party organizations are also the most important vehicles for recruiting young
adults into political work, because political involvement at the local level offers activists
many opportunities to gain experience.The Party-in-Government. After the election is over and the winners are announced,
the focus of party activity shifts from getting out the vote to organizing and controlling
the government. As you will see in Chapter 9, party membership plays an important role
in the day-to-day operations of Congress, with partisanship determining everything from
office space to committee assignments and power on Capitol Hill. For the president, the- Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois, 497 U.S. 62 (1990).
Copyright 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.