The Overlooked but Incredibly Important Party Platform

• In Event: Interest Groups, Parties, and the Policies for Which They Advocate

Abstract

Many political scientists believe that US party platforms “may be nothing more than cheap talk.” (Noel 2010) However, based on an original database of party platform positions and federal policy outcomes, covering 1980 to 2012, I find that party platforms are a reliable guide to which policy changes Members of Congress and presidents from each party will support—and oppose—in the future. I find that this relationship holds even after conditioning the results on public opinion. That is, parties do not simply place popular policy stands in the platform and then enact them when they are in power. Rather, as hypothesized, parties use the platform-drafting process as a means of solving coordination problems among interest groups that are key parts of the party coalition. Through extensive interviews with officials in both parties who have played key roles in the platform-drafting process, I find additional support for my hypothesis: in return for interest groups providing electoral support to the party (for example in the form of financial contributions, voter-registration drives, and get-out-the-vote efforts), the party delivers on platform positions that the interest groups have endorsed.

Author

• Scott Cooley, University of Chicago