The purpose of this chapter is to describe how political parties are organized, what they do, and how they do it.
Parties are natural groups.
Why Political Parties are Formed.—Whenever people are in control of their government, political parties are certain to be formed. No popular government has long continued anywhere in the world without political parties. The reason for this is that whenever any group of people find that they have the same opinions or the same interests they desire to act together. If people are interested in music they organize an orchestra or a choral society and arrange concerts. If men are interested in trade, they organize themselves into a board of trade to promote their mutual interests. Workmen associate themselves together in labor unions; boys who are interested in athletics organize clubs; men who have been in the military and naval service associate themselves together in the American Legion, and so it goes. People who have the same opinions, desires, ideas, and interests tend to group themselves together, which is a perfectly natural thing for them to do.
Now large numbers of men and women have identical political opinions (or think they have) and this community of interest draws them together into groups. Such groups we call political parties. The Republican party is made up of men and women who believe in certain political principles which are set forth in the party platform; the Democratic party is made up of those who hold a different set of opinions. Whenever a large body of people wish the government to do something which is not already being done they soon find that the best way to achieve their end is to organize.[[50]]
Their first aim is to win elections.
The Aims of Political Parties.—Every political party has two aims. The first is to get control of the government; the second is to carry out its own policy by means of this control. To do this they must nominate candidates for office, raise funds for carrying on a campaign, and work to elect their men. It is only by electing their own candidates for office that they can accomplish the ends for which they are organized. An army does not exist merely to teach men drill or discipline. Its chief aim is to win victories. Drill and discipline are merely a means to this end. So with a political party. Its organization, leaders, campaign work, and all other activities have one purpose in mind, namely, to win victories at the polls. Then, when the party has elected its candidates and obtained control of the government it can carry its program into effect. Occasionally a party secures its chief aim without gaining control of the government, as the Prohibition party did in 1920.
But the aim of a political party is not altogether selfish.
Definition of a Political Party.—Having seen why political parties are formed and what they aim to do we are now in a position to frame a definition. A political party is a group of men and women who think alike on public questions and have joined themselves together in order to gain control of the government so that they can carry their opinions into practice. The aim of a party is not always selfish, however, as this definition might imply. Most members of a political party believe that in endeavoring to get control of the government they are promoting the public interest. Their aim is to bring into operation certain policies which they believe will benefit the whole people. The Democratic party urged a revision of tariff ten years ago because its members believed that lower duties on imports would help the United States as a whole and not because the Democrats, as distinct from the Republicans, would derive the whole advantage. The Republicans, for their part, have favored high duties on imports because they believe that American industry ought to be protected against foreign competition. Both parties seek to promote the general interest, but in different ways.
Habit is an important factor in party strength.
Party Divisions Tend to Become Permanent.—Parties are originally formed to promote a particular policy, but when they have gained control of the government and have put their program into practice they do not go out of existence. They continue, and people remain members of the party, largely from force of habit. Each party takes up new ideas, gains some new members and loses some old ones. The mill keeps on turning although new forms of grist are brought to be ground and new workmen guide the wheels. Men and women who reach voting age join one or another of the parties, sometimes because they are influenced by its principles, more often because their parents have belonged to that party. Thus it happens that over long periods of time a party may remain strong among the people in one section of the country and weak in another. The reason is not that the party’s policy at the moment happens to be popular in one area and unpopular in the other. Habit influences people in politics as in everything else. When a man has voted several times with one political party he is not likely to desert it even though the party’s program changes. Not only that but his sons and daughters will probably join the same political party. Pennsylvania has gone Republican at every national election for more than sixty years although a wholly new set of voters has grown up; Texas on the other hand has never failed to support the Democratic ticket for just as long a period. The whole of the “Solid South”, in fact, goes Democratic with unfailing regularity, and has done so ever since the Reconstruction. A political party thus retains a strong hold upon large bodies of voters, old and new, even though it may change its policies from time to time.