Fifth Party System
Encyclopedia
The Fifth Party System refers to the era of American
national politics that began with the New Deal
in 1933. This era emerged from the realignment of the voting bloc
s and interest groups
supporting the Democratic Party into the New Deal Coalition
following the Great Depression
. For this reason it is sometimes called the New Deal Party System. 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), the early 1980s (when the Moral Majority
was formed), 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, 1994-2004, and 2010 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 Republicans losing support because of the Great Depression
, the four consecutive elections, 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944, of 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 conservative wing, led by Ohio
Senator Robert A. Taft, and a more successful moderate wing exemplified by the politics of Northeastern leaders such as Nelson Rockefeller
, Jacob Javits, and Henry Cabot Lodge
.
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 GOP was in control with small majorities, until the Democrats recaptured the chamber with the 2006 election and the 110th Congress. The Democrats held the Senate until 1980; after 1980, the two parties traded control of the Senate back and forth with small majorities, until the Democrats briefly held a supermajority
in 2009.
model with its numbering and demarcation of the historical systems was introduced in 1967. Much of the work published on the subject has been by political scientists explaining the events of their time as either the imminent breakup of the Fifth Party System, and the installation of a new one or that this transition took place some time ago. However, no decisive electoral event, shifting both presidential and congressional control, has occurred since 1932. This idea was particularly popular in the 1970s, specifying dates as early as 1960
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. 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 dealignment 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.
Source: Gallup Polls in Gallup (1972)
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
national politics that began with the New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
in 1933. This era emerged from the realignment of the voting bloc
Voting bloc
A voting bloc is a group of voters that are so motivated by a specific concern or group of concerns that it helps determine how they vote in elections. The divisions between voting blocs are known as cleavage...
s and interest groups
Advocacy group
Advocacy groups use various forms of advocacy to influence public opinion and/or policy; they have played and continue to play an important part in the development of political and social systems...
supporting the Democratic Party into the New Deal Coalition
New Deal coalition
The New Deal Coalition was the alignment of interest groups and voting blocs that supported the New Deal and voted for Democratic presidential candidates from 1932 until the late 1960s. It made the Democratic Party the majority party during that period, losing only to Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952...
following the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. For this reason it is sometimes called the New Deal Party System. It followed the Fourth Party System
Fourth Party System
The Fourth Party System is the term used in political science and history for the period in American political history from about 1896 to 1932 that was dominated by the Republican party, excepting the 1912 split in which Democrats held the White House for eight years. History texts usually call it...
, usually called the Progressive Era
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era in the United States was a period of social activism and political reform that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. One main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of government, as Progressives tried to eliminate corruption by exposing and undercutting political...
. Experts debate whether it ended in the mid-1960s (as the New Deal coalition
New Deal coalition
The New Deal Coalition was the alignment of interest groups and voting blocs that supported the New Deal and voted for Democratic presidential candidates from 1932 until the late 1960s. It made the Democratic Party the majority party during that period, losing only to Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952...
did), the early 1980s (when the Moral Majority
Moral Majority
The Moral Majority was a political organization of the United States which had an agenda of evangelical Christian-oriented political lobbying...
was formed), 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, 1994-2004, and 2010 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 Republicans losing support because of the Great Depression
Great Depression in the United States
The Great Depression began with the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement...
, the four consecutive elections, 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944, of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
gave the Democrats dominance, though in domestic issues the conservative coalition
Conservative coalition
In the United States, the conservative coalition was an unofficial Congressional coalition bringing together the conservative majority of the Republican Party and the conservative, mostly Southern, wing of the Democratic Party...
generally controlled Congress from 1938 to 1964. The activist New Deal
New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
promoted American liberalism, anchored in a New Deal Coalition
New Deal coalition
The New Deal Coalition was the alignment of interest groups and voting blocs that supported the New Deal and voted for Democratic presidential candidates from 1932 until the late 1960s. It made the Democratic Party the majority party during that period, losing only to Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952...
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
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
were split between a conservative wing, led by Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
Senator Robert A. Taft, and a more successful moderate wing exemplified by the politics of Northeastern leaders such as Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Rockefeller
Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller was the 41st Vice President of the United States , serving under President Gerald Ford, and the 49th Governor of New York , as well as serving the Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower administrations in a variety of positions...
, Jacob Javits, and Henry Cabot Lodge
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. was a Republican United States Senator from Massachusetts and a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, South Vietnam, West Germany, and the Holy See . He was the Republican nominee for Vice President in the 1960 Presidential election.-Early life:Lodge was born in Nahant,...
.
The Democratic coalition divided in 1948 and 1968, in the latter election allowing the Republican candidate Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
to take the White House. Republicans gained support from the formation of the Reagan coalition
Reagan coalition
The Reagan coalition was the combination of voters that Republican Ronald Reagan assembled to produce a major political realignment with his landslide in the 1980 United States Presidential Election. In 1980 the Reagan coalition was possible because of Democrat Jimmy Carter's losses in most...
in the 1980s. Democrats kept control of the House of Representatives until the 1994 election. For the next twelve years the GOP was in control with small majorities, until the Democrats recaptured the chamber with the 2006 election and the 110th Congress. The Democrats held the Senate until 1980; after 1980, the two parties traded control of the Senate back and forth with small majorities, until the Democrats briefly held a supermajority
Supermajority
A supermajority or a qualified majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level or type of support which exceeds a simple majority . In some jurisdictions, for example, parliamentary procedure requires that any action that may alter the rights of the minority has a supermajority...
in 2009.
Current state
The party systemParty system
A party system is a concept in comparative political science concerning the system of government by political parties in a democratic country. The idea is that political parties have basic similarities: they control the government, have a stable base of mass popular support, and create internal...
model with its numbering and demarcation of the historical systems was introduced in 1967. Much of the work published on the subject has been by political scientists explaining the events of their time as either the imminent breakup of the Fifth Party System, and the installation of a new one or that this transition took place some time ago. However, no decisive electoral event, shifting both presidential and congressional control, has occurred since 1932. This idea was particularly popular in the 1970s, specifying dates as early as 1960
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. 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 dealignment 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.
Group voting patterns %Democratic in presidential elections 1948-1964
The emergence of public opinion polls gave the candidates detailed information about how well they were doing in different constituencies, and historians have relied on them for explaining what swings among voters accounted for the results. Probably the best-known national poll was the Gallup Poll.% Democratic vote in major groups, presidency 1948-1964 | |||||
1948 | 1952 | 1956 | 1960 | 1964 | |
all voters | 50 | 45 | 42 | 50 | 61 |
White | 50 | 43 | 41 | 49 | 59 |
Black | 50 | 79 | 61 | 68 | 94 |
College | 22 | 34 | 31 | 39 | 52 |
High School | 51 | 45 | 42 | 52 | 62 |
Grade School | 64 | 52 | 50 | 55 | 66 |
Professional & Business | 19 | 36 | 32 | 42 | 54 |
White Collar | 47 | 40 | 37 | 48 | 57 |
Manual worker | 66 | 55 | 50 | 60 | 71 |
Farmer | 60 | 33 | 46 | 48 | 53 |
Union member | 76 | 51 | 62 | 77 | |
Not union | 42 | 35 | 44 | 56 | |
Protestant | 43 | 37 | 37 | 38 | 55 |
Catholic | 62 | 56 | 51 | 78 | 76 |
Republican | 8 | 4 | 5 | 20 | |
Independent | 35 | 30 | 43 | 56 | |
Democrat | 77 | 85 | 84 | 87 | |
East | 48 | 45 | 40 | 53 | 68 |
Midwest | 50 | 42 | 41 | 48 | 61 |
West | 49 | 42 | 43 | 49 | 60 |
South | 53 | 51 | 49 | 51 | 52 |
Source: Gallup Polls in Gallup (1972)
Further reading
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.)
- Caraley, Demetrios James, “Three Trends Over Eight Presidential Elections, 1980–2008: Toward the Emergence of a Democratic Majority Realignment?,” Political Science Quarterly, 124 (Fall 2009), 423–42
- 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)
- Paulson, Arthur. Electoral Realignment and the Outlook for American Democracy (2006)
- Pederson, William D. ed. A Companion to Franklin D. Roosevelt (Blackwell Companions to American History) (2011)
- 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
- Sitkoff, Harvard. "Harry Truman and the Election of 1948: The Coming of Age of Civil Rights in American Politics," Journal of Southern History Vol. 37, No. 4 (Nov., 1971), pp. 597-616 in JSTOR
- Sundquist, James L. Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States, (1983)