JOHN HERMANN GUEST COLUMNIST
[email protected]
Although not expressly mentioned in the United States Constitution, political parties play an integral role in the American political system. In relation to other Western industrial nations, our political party system has many unique attributes: One important characteristic is that we have an unqualified two-party system, whereas other countries have multiparty systems. The United States has also created structural barriers for third parties to form.
In particular, political parties play a dominant role in voting behavior. In other countries, the voter has a wide array of candidates to choose from. In the United States, by contrast, the choice is usually between two candidates with two very familiar labels — Democrat and Republican. Our two-party system creates a dualist system, where we have a binary choice and the majority party rules. Majority rule gives an officeholder a mandate to work on behalf of the electorate since she won over 50% of the votes. This would probably not be the case in a multiparty system.
What is perhaps more interesting, the common understanding of how people vote in the United States is not accurate. Spoiler alert: Political party is the primary determinant in voting. Still, the common theory of how an individual vote goes something like this: The voter does soul-searching for where she stands on vital issues, then matches those stances with the candidate who is closest in proximity on those important policy positions.
Political scientists know that the voter does not operate in this way because voters are not educated on the candidates or the issues. We also know that candidates often obscure their positions on issues. If you have voted, you have a multitude of choices for candidates for so many offices. It is virtually impossible to know every candidate’s position on every issue. This is where political parties become important in the voting process. The voter uses what political scientists call a heuristic cue to vote. It is an information shortcut where you vote for a particular political party that most closely represents your positions on the issues. While about 60% of Americans clearly identify as Democrat or Republican, there are many party leaners. And, on Election Day, the party leaners fall into line by using these heuristic cues, making political parties even more prominent in explaining the outcome of elections. Those who are independents usually vote for one of the two major political parties on Election Day.
Finally, when discussing our two-party system, I believe I would be doing a great disservice if I did not explore a relatively recent development: Political party polarization — the divergence of political attitudes away from the center, moving toward the ideological extremes. At present, we are near an apex when it involves political party polarization. In fact, the last time the two political parties were this polarized was right before the Civil War. The United States is experiencing affective polarization — a voter experiences positive feelings toward one party and negative feelings toward the other.
What is still unresolved is whether political party polarization is a mass or elite phenomenon. Some prominent scholars argue that the masses are politically polarized at the left and right extremes. The candidates and officeholders are just representing a hopelessly divided electorate, meaning the candidates would not be extreme if the voters were not. There is some evidence for this argument: The United States electorate is divided into several cleavages (e.g., urban vs. rural, the gender gap). On the flip side, many prominent scholars contend that political party polarization is caused by hopelessly divided elites (such as candidates, officeholders, the media, academics). These elites are on the left and right extremes. Yet, the mass electorate’s political attitudes coalesce in the center. The voters are forced to choose between two extremes.
With the rise of the internet, voters are self-selecting media sources and there is gross disinformation on the web, showing how elites are more influential.
In the end, it is important to understand the prominent role that political parties play in society and on our voting behavior.
