Election Types

THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM is a constant in American politics. However, the ideology and the electoral base of these parties have suffered several major changes during the last 200 years. Elections play a crucial role in this process of change, and scholars have developed a typology of elections based on how important and lasting the impact of an election is on the party system. During realigning or critical elections, the balance of power between the two parties changes radically, and there are major shifts in both the policies they endorse and their constituencies.

These changes have a durable impact, and shape the party system until the next realignment, with one party emerging as the majority party. Maintaining elections preserve the status quo, with the majority party retaining control of Congress and the White House. Deviating elections resemble realigning elections in one important way: the majority party suffers major losses. However, unlike realigning elections, the setback of the majority party is only temporary. Reinstating elections follow deviating elections, during which the majority party recovers the losses suffered in the previous election. Whenever the majority party suffers a major defeat in an election, it is only with the benefit of hindsight that it can be determined if that election was realigning or deviating.

There is also a more ambitious, full-fledged theory of realignments that goes beyond this mere typology, it makes the claim that a realignment occurs in party politics in the United States every 30 years or so. However, the last realignment about which there is relatively little controversy occurred in 1932; since then, there were several elections that were characterized as realigning, but there is far less consensus about them. Realigning elections separate party systems, including: the first party system (roughly 1792–1828), the second party system (1828–60), the third party system (1860–96), the fourth party system (1896–1932), and the fifth party system (1932-).

The first party system was structured by conflicts over the strength of the national government, foreign policy, and the developmental path to be followed by the new republic. There were the Federalists, led by Alexander Hamilton, representing the urban elite of bankers, merchants, and industrialists, who wanted a strong central government and an economy based on industry and commerce. The Democratic-Republican Party, which opposed these policies, was led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who promoted states' rights and the interests of farmers. These two political factions were not truly parties; suffrage was very limited, and voters did not select presidential electors in most states, so there was no need for parties to mobilize voters.

The 1828 presidential election marked the beginning of the second party system. Political parties in the United States actually emerged as partisan vehicles for nominating candidates, structuring choice, proposing programs, and coordinating the action of government. Suffrage expanded, and this led to a dramatic increase in the quantity and impact of voter participation. The total number of votes cast rose from 370,000 in 1824, to 1.1 million in 1828. Moreover, voters directly elected an increasing number of presidential electors. As the electorate expanded, the relation between political elites and voters changed.

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