More on parties

I have now read Alan Ware’s book on political conflict in America. Ware has spent his life studying political parties, and knows a tremendous amount about them. I am not sure about some of his distinctions by which he frames his discussion, such as between liturgicals vs pietisticals, or between libertarians vs republicans, but he does get down to some of the structural, organizational issues about political parties toward the end, and these are important. As he describes it, the Democratic party created by Van Buren in the 1820s was the first real mass party, and it succeeded because of its organization and its use of patronage. Thus it is incorrect to say that the parties at that time were weak. They were not weak as organizations, but they were weak in the European sense of not having coherent national programs and platforms.

Criticism of the parties will have to be more complete and precise. I am now reading Ware’s book on the development of the direct primary between 1890 and 1915.

Mean while, I have learned that there is a movement advocating a constitutional amendment to the effect that corporations are not, and cannot be treated as persons under the law. This is in reaction to the Citizens United decision by the Supreme  Court that allows corporations, as people, the free speech right to express their opinions and feelings in the form of giving money to PACs supporting candidates. Whether or not this will ever happen, or should happen, it is appropriate to correct the previous tendency of the Supreme Court to treat corporations as people, especially with respect to the 14^th Amendment. This would go a long way toward reducing the freedom of corporations and enhancing the power of governments to regulate corporate behavior.