Fifth Party System
The New Deal Coalition, also known as the Fifth Party System, refers to the era of United States national politics that began with the New Deal in 1933. It followed the Fourth Party System, usually called the Progressive Era. Experts debate whether it ended in the mid-1960s (as the New Deal coalition did) or the mid-1990s, or continues to the present. The System was heavily Democratic through 1964 and mostly Republican at the presidential level since 1968, with the Senate switching back and forth after 1980. The Democrats usually controlled the House except that the Republicans won in 1946, 1952, and 1994 through 2004 elections. Both chambers went Democratic in 2006. Of the twenty presidential elections since 1932, the Democrats won 7 of the first 9 (through 1964), with Democratic control of Congress as the norm; while the Republicans won 7 of the 11 since 1968, with divided government as the norm.
With Republican promises of prosperity discredited by the Great Depression, the four consecutive elections, 1932-36-40-44 of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the Democrats dominance, though in domestic issues the Conservative coalition generally controlled Congress from 1938 to 1964. The activist New Deal promoted American liberalism, anchored in a New Deal Coalition of specific liberal groups—especially ethno-religious constituencies (Catholics, Jews, African Americans)—white Southerners, well-organized labor unions, urban machines, progressive intellectuals, and populist farm groups. Opposition Republicans were split between a paleoconservative wing, led by Ohio Senator Robert A. Taft, and a more successful moderate wing exemplified by the politics of Northeastern elites such as Nelson Rockefeller, Jacob Javits and Henry Cabot Lodge.
The period climaxed with Lyndon B. Johnson's smashing electoral defeat of conservative Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964; in no other election since 1944 except LBJ, Jimmy Carter in 1976, and Barack Obama in 2008 has the Democratic party received more than 50% of the popular vote for President, although in 1996, Clinton had come very close to a majority (a substantial portion of the vote went to a third party candidate Ross Perot).
The Democratic coalition divided in 1948 and 1968, in the latter election allowing the Republican candidate Richard Nixon to take the White House. Republicans gained support from the formation of the Reagan coalition in the 1980s. Democrats kept control of the House of Representatives until the 1994 election. For the next twelve years the Republican Party was in control with small majorities, until the Democrats recaptured the chamber with 2006 election and the 110th Congress. The Democrats held the Senate until 1980; since then the two parties have traded control of the Senate back and forth with small majorities.
Sixth Party System?
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The party system model dates to the late 20th century. The numbering of the systems was introduced in 1967.[1] Much of the work published on the subject has been political scientists explaining the events of their own time as the imminent breakup of the Fifth Party System, and the installation of a new one; some papers argue that it broke up at some time long before publication.[2] However, no decisive electoral event, shifting both Presidential and Congressional control, has occurred since 1932[citation needed]. This idea was particularly popular in the 1970s, specifying dates as early as 1960[citation needed].
Other current writing on the Fifth Party System expresses admiration of its longevity: the first four systems lasted about 30 to 40 years each, which would have implied that the early twenty-first century should see a Sixth Party System.[3] It is also possible, as argued in (Jensen 1981) and elsewhere, that the party system has given way, not to a new party system, but to a period of unalignment in politics. Previous party systems ended with the dominant party losing two consecutive House elections by large margins, with a presidential election coinciding with or immediately following (in 1896) the second house election--decisive electoral evidence of political realignment.
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References
- John H. Aldrich (1999). "Political Parties in a Critical Era" (abstract page). American Politics Research (SAGE Publications) 27 (1): 9–32. doi:10.1177/1532673X99027001003, http://apr.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/27/1/9. alone speculates on emergence of Seventh Party System
- Allswang, John M. New Deal and American Politics (1978), statistical analysis of votes
- Andersen, Kristi. The Creation of a Democratic Majority, 1928-1936 (1979), statistical analysis of polls
- Bibby, John F. "Party Organizations, 1946-1996," in Byron E. Shafer, ed. Partisan Approaches to Postwar American Politics, (1998)
- Cantril, Hadley and Mildred Strunk, eds. Public Opinion, 1935-1946 (1951). (A massive compilation of public opinion polls.)
- Fraser, Steve, and Gary Gerstle, eds. The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930-1980 (1990), essays on broad topics.
- Gallup, George. The Gallup Poll: Public opinion, 1935-1971 (3 vol 1972)
- Geer, John G. "New Deal Issues and the American Electorate, 1952-1988," Political Behavior, 14#1 (Mar., 1992), pp. 45-65 online at JSTOR
- Gershtenson, Joseph. "Mobilization Strategies of the Democrats and Republicans, 1956-2000," Political Research Quarterly Vol. 56, No. 3 (Sep., 2003), pp. 293-308 in JSTOR
- Green, John C. and Paul S. Herrnson. "Party Development in the Twentieth Century: Laying the Foundations for Responsible Party Government?" (2000)
- Hamby, Alonzo. Liberalism and Its Challengers: From F.D.R. to Bush (1992).
- Jensen, Richard. "The Last Party System: Decay of Consensus, 1932-1980," in The Evolution of American Electoral Systems (Paul Kleppner et al. eds.) (1981) pp 219-225,
- Ladd Jr., Everett Carll with Charles D. Hadley. Transformations of the American Party System: Political Coalitions from the New Deal to the 1970s 2nd ed. (1978).
- Leuchtenburg, William E. In the Shadow of FDR: From Harry Truman to George W. Bush (2001)
- Levine, Jeffrey; Carmines, Edward G.; and Huckfeldt, Robert. "The Rise of Ideology in the Post-New Deal Party System, 1972-1992." American Politics Quarterly (1997) 25(1): 19-34. Issn: 0044-7803 Argues that the social basis of the New Deal party system has weakened. The result is ideology shapes partisan support.
- Manza, Jeff and Clem Brooks; Social Cleavages and Political Change: Voter Alignments and U.S. Party Coalitions, Oxford University Press, 1999
- Manza, Jeff; "Political Sociological Models of the U.S. New Deal" Annual Review of Sociology, 2000 pp 297+
- Milkis, Sidney M. and Jerome M. Mileur, eds. The New Deal and the Triumph of Liberalism (2002)
- Milkis, Sidney M. The President and the Parties: The Transformation of the American Party System Since the New Deal (1993)
- Arthur Paulson. Electoral Realignment and the Outlook for American Democracy (2006)
- Robinson, Edgar Eugene. They Voted for Roosevelt: The Presidential Vote, 1932-1944 (1947) tables of votes by county
- Shafer, Byron E. and Anthony J. Badger, eds. Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775-2000 (2001)
- Sternsher, Bernard. "The New Deal Party System: A Reappraisal," Journal of Interdisciplinary History v.15#1 (Summer, 1984), pp. 53-81 JSTOR
- Sternsher, Bernard. "The Emergence of the New Deal Party System: A Problem in Historical Analysis of Voter Behavior," Journal of Interdisciplinary History, v.6#1 (Summer, 1975), pp. 127-149 online at JSTOR
- Sundquist, James L. Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States, (1983)
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