Party Platforms

A POLITICAL PARTY'S statement of policy positions is called a party platform. These documents serve as a public declaration of the beliefs and principles a party stands for, and they can inform voters about what policies the party and its candidates will advocate. Adopting a platform is the second major responsibility of the delegates to a party's national convention, second only to selecting the presidential nominee. Although the relevance of a party's platform to its future governing actions or even its campaign promises has been disputed (candidates are not bound to their party's platform statements), the platform remains an important tool for synthesizing a party's positions on a variety of issues and for educating voters.

Platforms are composed of planks that represent different issue areas of concern to party activists. The range of issues covered in platforms has greatly expanded since the first party platforms. Modern platforms have been long documents; the 2004 Republican platform was more than 40,000 words, and the 2000 Democratic platform was nearly 25,000 words. Early platforms were more concise statements of the party's principles and [Page 487]goals. The 1840 Democratic platform was just over 500 words long, and the 1856 Republican platform was less than 1,000 words. The issues covered in platforms represent what party leaders believe to be the most important policy debates of the presidential election year. The platforms of the 1850s and 1860s dealt with slavery and the Civil War; those of the 1930s proposed solutions to economic strife; and the platforms of 2004 focused on preventing future terrorist attacks and the resolution of the war in Iraq.

Delegates to the party's national convention adopt the platform, giving the document the distinction of having the approval of the party's highest plenary body. In the Democratic and Republican parties, convention delegates come from each state (and territory) and are elected through the state party's primary or caucus system. Each of these state delegations selects representatives to serve as members of the Platform Committee, which is an official committee of each national convention (along with the Rules and Credentials committees). Elected party leaders often chair the platform committees. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist chaired the Republican Platform Committee in 2004, and Democrats chose Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs fones, Governor Tom Vilsack, and Los Angeles City Councilman Antonio Vil-laraigosa to be the co-chairs of its committee.

State parties often draft their own state platforms, and the representatives they send to the national Platform Committee might advocate for specific planks that appear in the state platform. A small platform drafting committee, which is typically composed of leading policymakers and important interest group representatives, composes a draft platform to send to the full Platform Committee. In 2004, the Platform Drafting Committee for the Democratic Party held hearings in different locations across the country to solicit input on the party's platform from various interests. The full Platform Committee approves the draft national platform, and sends it to the convention floor for a vote by the full convention.

A series of reforms to the delegate selection process that originated in the Democratic Party after fights over minority representation at the 1964 and 1968 conventions had consequences for nominating conventions and platform writing in both parties. Instead of state and local party bosses controlling the composition of convention delegations, and thereby controlling the process of drafting and adopting the platform, delegates are now selected in both major parties through a primary or caucus system in each state, with some slots reserved in both parties for elected officials and party leaders.

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