Why Parties? A Second Look

Citation

Aldrich, J. H. (2011). Why Parties? A Second Look. University of Chicago Press.

Chapter Summary

The book has nine chapters in four parts, about 400 pages with 24 line drawings and 24 tables, in the Chicago Studies in American Politics series. It is the rewritten successor to Why Parties?, which appeared fifteen years earlier. The publisher describes it as a wholesale re-examination of the foundations of the American party system that steps back from arguments over whether parties are in resurgence or decline. Its argument is that parties serve to combat three fundamental problems of democracy: how to regulate the number of people seeking public office, how to mobilise voters, and how to achieve and maintain the majorities needed to accomplish goals once in office. The historical chapters follow party development from the 1790s to the Civil War, and the later chapters bring the account up to the present.

Part 1: Political Parties and Democracy

Chapter 1: Politics and Parties in America

The opening chapter introduces American political parties as the subject of the book and lays out what the study sets out to explain.

Chapter 2: Why Parties Form

The theory chapter. It asks why parties form at all, and the subtitles of the historical chapters that follow (institutions and social choice, collective action, issue agendas and ambition) point to the concepts it supplies.

Part 2: Party Formation in America, 1790–1860

Chapter 3: Founding the First Parties: Institutions and Social Choice

After a short prologue to Part 2, the chapter takes up the formation of the first parties in the 1790s. Its subtitle links the story to institutions and social choice.

Chapter 4: Jacksonian Democracy: The Mass Party and Collective Action

The chapter on the Jacksonian period connects the rise of the mass party with the problem of collective action, according to its subtitle.

Chapter 5: Whigs and Republicans: Institutions, Issue Agendas, and Ambition

The third historical case covers the Whigs and the Republicans and ties institutions, issue agendas and ambition to party formation. Together with Chapters 3 and 4, it brings the account to the eve of the Civil War.

Part 3: The New Political Party in Contemporary America

Chapter 6: Party Activists and Partisan Cleavages

After a prologue, Part 3 begins with party activists and the partisan divisions of contemporary elections.

Chapter 7: Political Parties and Governance

The chapter on governance examines the role of parties in governance, which connects to the publisher's third problem of democracy, achieving and maintaining majorities in office.

Chapter 8: The Critical Era of the 1960s

This chapter takes the 1960s as a critical era in the development of the modern party. The publisher's description of the book as a whole mentions the profound changes in party character since the Second World War, including the rise of the Republican Party in the South.

Part 4: Conclusions

Chapter 9: Political Parties, Historical Dynamics, and Democratic Politics

The last chapter draws the argument together. The publisher says the book offers a fuller consideration of party systems in general, especially the two-party system in the United States, and explains why that system is necessary for effective democracy.

Key Concepts

Parts 1–2: Theory and Formation

• Collective action: one of the problems that, in the chapter subtitle on Jacksonian democracy, the mass party is meant to solve.
• Social choice: the problem addressed by the first parties in Chapter 3.
• Ambition: the motive tied, with institutions and issue agendas, to the Whig and Republican parties in Chapter 5.
• The three problems of democracy: regulating the number of office seekers, mobilising voters and maintaining majorities.

Parts 3–4: The Contemporary Party

• Party activists and partisan cleavages: the subject of Chapter 6.
• Parties and governance: the focus of Chapter 7.
• The two-party system: the object of the fuller treatment in the conclusion.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• A single explanatory argument carried across two centuries. The book uses the same three problems of democracy to explain parties in the 1790s, the mass party of the Jacksonian era, the Whigs and Republicans, and the parties of the late twentieth century, so the reader sees what changes and what stays constant.
• Theory and history together. Part 1 supplies the theoretical question; Parts 2 and 3 apply it to historical and contemporary cases. John Ferejohn, quoted by the publisher, praised the first edition for developing new theory while using modern statistical methods as well as traditional historical approaches.
• A fully revised second edition. The publisher says the book has been rewritten for the new millennium, brings the account up to the present, and addresses developments such as the rise of the Republican Party in the South. A Choice review by R. J. Gelm called it the premier standard book on political parties.
• Quantitative material. The book carries 24 tables and 24 line drawings, which supports an argument that makes claims about party change.

Limitations

• American focus. The book is about American parties; the publisher says it also gives a fuller consideration of party systems in general, but the case material is American.
• A particular theoretical lens. The subtitles of the historical chapters refer to institutions, social choice, collective action and ambition, so the account stays within a choice-theoretic framework and readers who prefer other approaches to parties will need other books.
• Assumes background. The book is a monograph with no teaching apparatus mentioned by the publisher; readers need a grounding in American politics and some familiarity with collective action problems.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the American politics course, this is an advanced monograph on one institution. The introductory books come first: Krutz and Waskiewicz's OpenStax American Government, Richard Valelly's American Politics: A Very Short Introduction, and the textbooks We the People and The Logic of American Politics. The latter is built on the idea that political institutions are designed solutions to collective action problems, which is the same family of ideas that Aldrich uses and a helpful preparation for his chapters.

David Mayhew's Congress: The Electoral Connection asks what Congress would look like if its members were single-minded seekers of reelection, and sets up an account in which parties are weak; Aldrich's book argues that politicians' ambitions lead them to build parties. Reading the two together shows two answers to what politicians' goals imply for political organisation.

How to Use This Book

The book is for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in American politics, parties and elections, and for researchers who want the rational choice account of parties. A course in American politics and a basic familiarity with collective action problems are the useful preparation.

A practical plan:

• Read Chapters 1 and 2 first. They hold the theory on which the historical chapters draw; return to them after Part 2.
• Read Part 2 as three cases (Chapters 3 to 5), each of which applies the theory to one period of party formation. Readers mainly interested in contemporary politics can skim it.
• Spend most time on Part 3 (Chapters 6 to 8) for the modern party: activists, governance and the 1960s.
• Read Chapter 9 last, and compare its account of the two-party system and democracy with another work on parties or Congress.