Party Organisation in US Politics

Organisational structure of 2 major parties

National Committees are the only manifestation of the party structure at a national level. Both the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Republican National Committee (RNC) organise their respective conventions (every 4 years)

  • Sometimes there are conflicts between the national and state level - in 2008, some Democratic state parties scheduled their primaries early and were stripped of their convention delegates (they later gave half of them back). In 2012, 5 states ignored RNC rules about delegate selection and had their delegate allocation cut in half.

Congressional Committees:

Each party has a series of committees in both houses overseeing policy and campaigning (in 2012, the Chair of the Democrat Senatorial Campaign Committee was given much credit for their successful Senate campaign having gained 2 seats when they were expected to lose significantly)

State-level organisation:

Considerable power is vested in state governors and mayors of big cities.

Increasingly the state and local parties are dominated by:

  • Issue activists - people committed to a particular political issue like civil rights
  • Candidate activists - people who have come into politics through working on the campaign of a particular candidate

Extra

Now check out our notes on the Democratic party and the Republican party

Also check out our notes on partisanship and the party system