Aldrich 1995 why parties

Rather, they have more fundamental goals, and the party is only the instrument for achieving them. A political party is an endogenous institution shaped by ambitious political actors office seeker and officeholder. Political parties are the main instruments that "help" politicians to accomplish their goals long and successful career in political office, achievement of policy ends and power and prestige within the government. The form in which political parties can "help" ambitious politicians depends on three variables: the polity electorate , the institutional setting for example, a republican form of government, and the historical context ideas, values, technological conditions and also path of development.

The first two variables create collective action and collective choice problems. The historical context determines whether parties are the most efficient means of solving these two problems.

In sum, "parties are designed as attempts to solve problems that current institutional arrangements do not solve and that politicians have come to believe they cannot solve. These problems are related to collective action and collective choice. Parties are interest aggregators. The two parties are similar because both seek to appeal to a majority of the public; they are just umbrella organizations for various interests.

The theoretical problem with this approach: there really are distinct ideological differences between the parties. For example, the parties differ considerably on civil rights and on the scope of government intervention in society and the economy.

They have not converged on the median. Though, granted, each party is a coalition of diverse groups. The practical problem solved by approach: Madison argued that a strong federation would prevent tyranny by a majority, due to diversity. But the opposite problem can also occur: diversity makes forming a majority difficult.

Thus, gridlock. This approach solves this problem by seeing "parties [as] intermediaries that connect the public and the government" 9. Also, the c. Consider game theory: for example, in certain game theory contexts, i. Parties help to overcome this problem, by organizing and mobilizing similar interests; parties aggregate interests.

Thus, it is a problem, because if considering government policies, govs have trouble aggregating different individual prefs to appease everyone. The way to overcome this problem is to instate a decision rule. An example of a decision rule is majority rule.

Part 2 merely outlines the three problems Social Choice, Collective Action and Ambition with examples. Each example provides a principle, interests and institutional explanations to the paradox of why parties? In order to do so they expanded their platform to envelop an antislavery position. It was northern party and it was a policy focused in appeal, but it was not an ideological party.

This is, it was not solely antislavery or extremist. Aldrich distinguishes between activists policy and patronage and candidates. Political Science: American Government and Politics. The new edition describes recent developments in the parties and the party system and brings new evidence and thinking to the enterprise. It is a major contribution to political science that will be valuable to scholars as well as students at all levels. Highly recommended. Get the latest updates on new releases, special offers, and media highlights when you subscribe to our email lists!

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