- 9.01 nationalization of
structure
- 3, ac9
- The Republican National Committee,
like its Democratic counterpart, consists of
representatives of state party organizations and would
appear to stand at the peak of an organizational
hierarchy. But the national committeemen seldom command
their own state organizations, having been chosen mainly
for status in the party and frequently for financial
support of the party. As a result, membership on the
national committee connotes prestige rather than power.
During our time period at least, state party
organizations operated virtually autonomously of the
national committee, and they were certainly independent
of the House and Senate campaign committees. Even
decisions of the national convention were frequently
flaunted by state party organizations, some of whom
enacted state platforms subsequent to that of the
national convention and espoused contradictory
policies.
- 9.02 selecting the national
leader
- 3, ac9
- For our purposes, the party leader
is taken to be the party's presidential candidate rather
than the chairman of the national committee, who is
usually in fact appointed by the presidential candidate.
The Republican Party's presidential candidate is named by
an elaborate and tumultuous convention process involving
thousands of delegates representing state party
organizations. Excepting the situation which arises when
an incumbent president seeks re-election, there are
spirited contests for the party's nomination, and the
choice is the subject of speculation for months in
advance. This situation holds true for the Democratic
Party also.
- 9.03 selecting parliamentary
candidates
- 1, ac9
- The national party organizations
have no role to play in the determination of party
candidates, who are typically named in direct primary
elections usually open to all voters who profess to
support the party. Once the nomination has been secured,
Republican candidates can look to the Republican House
and Senate campaign committees for financial help for
their campaigns against Democrats. For example, McKeogh
determined that in 1964 the Republican house committee
distributed an average of $2,851 to each of 153
incumbents seeking re-election and $1,914 to each of 122
non-incumbent candidates from a field of 234 (p.20).
Republican candidates running in competitive districts
received most of the support. But these funds constitute
only a fraction of the money needed to run a campaign in
a competitive district, and money was available only
after the nomination was won. Rare attempts at
intervention by the president to oppose renomination of
Senators or Congressmen of his own party who did not
support his programs have failed more often than they
have succeeded.
- 9.04 allocating funds
- 3, ac9
- Enormous sums are required to
finance electoral campaigns throughout the United States.
Sorauf's compilation of the total estimated expenditures
during the presidential campaigns of 1952 through 1960
shows a growth from $140 million to $175 million (p.311).
Even in non-election years, however, the costs may run
from 5 to 10 million dollars (Bone, p.393). The
Republicans have circumvented the provisions of the Hatch
Act of 1940, which limits income or expenditures of any
single interstate committee to $3 million per year, with
the establishment of a Republican finance committee,
which coordinates fund raising for the Republican
National Committee and the House and Senate campaign
committees. As in the Democratic Party, state quotas were
assessed during our time period to raise funds for the
operation of the national committee. But because of the
coordinating role of the Republican finance committee,
the allocation and disbursement of funds within the
Republican Party were judged to be somewhat more
centralized. Departing from the strict operationalization
of this variable, we are counting the finance committee
as an intermediate "regional" committee in our
scoring.
- 9.05 formulating
policy
- 5, ac9
- Policy-making within the
Republican Party, as in the Democratic Party, is clearly
subordinate to the task of selecting the presidential
candidate. Every four years, the Republican national
convention does adopt a party platform prior to
nominating a candidate, but the nominee is free to
interpret the platform to suit his campaign, selectively
emphasizing and neglecting platform policies. An
incumbent president who seeks renomination, moreover, can
guide the platform formulation according to his
interests. Nevertheless, party activists work for the
adoption of acceptable policies within the platform and
may not support the candidate if their interests are not
served. Thus, Nixon's concern over Rockefeller's dislike
of the conservative platform being formulated in 1960 led
Nixon to influence its revision to gain Rockefeller's
support. Throughout our time period, only the Republican
national convention can be identified as the
authoritative voice of party policy--as distinguished
from presidential policy made by the Republican
Eisenhower from 1953 through 1960. A Republican committee
on program and progress was formed in 1959, following the
Republican defeat in the 1958 Congressional elections, to
apply Republican principles to problems of the day. It
issued a policy statement later that year, but the
importance of this committee as a policy-making body was
far less than that of the Democratic advisory council in
the other party.
- 9.06 controlling
communications
- 0, ac9
- The Republican National Committee
published a magazine called "Battle Line," but this
cannot be considered to be an important means of
communication within the party. While most of the
newspapers within the United States can be said to have
had a Republican orientation, this was due to the
philosophical inclinations of their publishers and not to
any control exercised by the Republican
Party.
- 9.07 administering
discipline
- 0, ac9
- The Republican Party has virtually
no means to discipline those who deviate from party
policy. No committee within the party is charged with
responsibility for disciplining party deviance, and the
party deviance, and the party organizations within the
two houses of Congress steer clear of reprimanding
members for voting against the majority of the
party.
- 9.08 leadership
concentration
- 1, ac9
- As the party in control of the
presidency for 8 of the 13 years in our time period, the
Republicans might be regarded as being high in leadership
concentration. However, presidential policies are not
necessarily party policies, and presidential
pronouncements are not necessarily regarded as party
pronouncements. In the particular case of Eisenhower as
the Republican president, moreover, no special effort was
made to exercise leadership in party affairs. Thus, the
Republicans experienced much the same situation of
fragmented leadership as did the Democrats. The minority
leaders in the House and Senate spoke out on party policy
in competition with the chairman of the national
Republican Party as well as with prominent senators and
governors.
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