What is a Political Party?
The Green New Deal. Medicare for All. Black Lives Matter, Criminal Justice Reform, and Defund the Police. Reproductive Justice. If a coalition is comprised of interest groups and activists, then each of these agendas become a screening tool for who an electorate nominates and supports. In fact, each of the agendas then becomes a benchmark of policy advocacy for the party that either embraces or rejects it. So, rather than a particular party championing an agenda and wooing coalitions, coalitions woo parties to take up their agendas (Bawn et al., 2012).
This reframing of what makes a party seems revolutionary on its face, and begs the question, what came first, the chicken or the egg? Did parties form first to woo the electorate, or did interest groups and activists woo political agents, and then for expediency, convene under a particular title, i.e. a party? The Logic of American Politics (Kernell et al., 2018) explains the incentives for forming political parties: To build stable legislative and electoral alliances; to mobilize voters; to develop new electoral techniques; and to use party labels and enforce collective responsibility (480–482). Where do coalitions, interest groups, and activists fit into these incentives? Without coalitions, how would parties determine their legislative agenda? Without coalitions, would parties have the reach necessary to mobilize voters? And, party labels would only go so far without coalitions giving that party a legislative agenda from which to build collective responsibility.
That said, perhaps formal parties and informal coalitions work in concert with one another to mobilize voters and develop common legislative agendas, respectively. If party identification is one of the most utilized heuristic voters use to make an informed vote (Popkin, 1991), then parties are compelled to champion legislative agendas of interest groups and activists; as Bawn et al. (2012) points out, once a coalition (e.g. Medicare for All or the Green New Deal) becomes a part of a party, then the “operation of nomination processes produces candidates committed to the group’s cause” (581). The coalition can then activate its base of interest groups and activists to enforce collective responsibility and mobilize voters.
I see this playing out more so now than I can remember in previous election cycles. Candidates, particularly challengers, are using coalitions’ legislative agendas as significant benchmarks for holding incumbents accountable to issues that are motivating the electorate. Campaigns are conducting town halls on issue-specific topics, all of which have broken into the mainstream due to coalition building; for example, disability rights interest groups and activists mobilized to demand town halls with recent Democratic presidential candidates. Dependent on whether candidates participated in these town halls, and what their policy commitments were, drove that coalition to endorse a particular candidate over another. In fact, endorsements have also become a critical campaign tactic in helping the electorate identify prospective candidates worthy of backing. For example, an endorsement from a coalition like the National Domestic Workers Alliance would allow for a candidate to woo and mobilize that coalition’s base of activists. So, while I may not be familiar with a particular candidate, if I see they are endorsed by the NDWA, I may be more inclined to support that candidate. Further, I can use that endorsement to push my local party to provide more institutionalized support. Thus, as stated earlier, parties and coalitions work in concert with one another, but it would seem parties require partnerships with coalitions in order to mobilize voters and enforce collective responsibility.
References:
Kathleen Bawn et al. 2012. “A Theory of Political Parties: Groups, Policy Demands and Nominations in American Politics.” Perspectives on Politics. 10: 571–597
Kernell, Samuel et al. The Logic of American Politics.CQ Press
Popkin, Samuel L. 1991. The Reasoning Voter
