Fifth Party System

The Fifth Party System, also called the New Deal Party System, refers to the era of United States politics which began with the New Deal in 1933. Experts debate whether it ended in the mid-1960s, the mid-1990's or continues to the present. It followed the Fourth Party System, usually called the Progressive Era. The System was mostly Democratic until 1964 and mostly Republican since then. From 1932 through 1964, the Democrats won seven of nine presidential contests and usually controlled Congress. From 1968 through 2004, the Republicans won seven of 10 presidential contests; control of Congress was split.

With Republicans discredited by the Great Depression, the four consecutive elections, 1932-36-40-44 of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt gave the Democrats dominance, though in domestic issues the Conservative coalition generally controlled Congress from 1938 to 1964. The activist New Deal promoted liberalism, anchored in a New Deal Coalition of blue collar workers, unions, Catholics, Jews, African Americans, and white Southerners, plus well-organized labor unions and big city machines. Opposition Republicans were split between a conservative wing, led by Senator Robert A. Taft, and a more successful moderate wing led by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The period climaxed with Lyndon B. Johnson's smashing electoral defeat of conservative Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964; in no other election since 1944 has the Democratic party received more than 50.1% of the Presidential vote. In 1948, and 1968, the Democratic coalition divided; the latter election gave Republican Richard Nixon to take the White House. Democrats kept control of the House until 1994, with Republicans in control since 1994. The Democrats held the Senate until 1980; since then the two parties have traded control of the Senate back and forth.

Sixth Party System?

This periodization of American history was published in 1955. Since then, much of the work published on the subject has been political scientists explaining the events of their own time as the imminent breakup of the Fifth Party System, and the installation of a new one. This idea was particularly popular in the 1970s, specifying dates as early as 1960; it became popular again in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Other current writing on the Fifth Party System expresses admiration of its longevity: the first four systems lasted about 30 years each, which would have implied that the early twenty-first century should see a seventh party system. It is also possible (as argued in (Jensen 1981) that the party system has given way, not to a new party system, but to a period of dealignment in politics.

References

• Allswang, John M. New Deal and American Politics (1978), statistical analysis of votes
• Andersen, Kristi. The Creation of a Democratic Majority, 1928-1936 (1979), statistical analysis of polls
• Cantril, Hadley and Mildred Strunk, eds. Public Opinion, 1935-1946 (1951), massive compilation of public opinion polls
• Fraser, Steve, and Gary Gerstle, eds. The Rise and Fall of the New Deal Order, 1930-1980 (1990), essays on broad topics.
• Geer, John G. "New Deal Issues and the American Electorate, 1952-1988," Political Behavior, 14#1 (Mar., 1992), pp. 45-65 online at JSTOR
• Gershtenson, Joseph. "Mobilization Strategies of the Democrats and Republicans, 1956-2000," Political Research Quarterly Vol. 56, No. 3 (Sep., 2003), pp. 293-308 in JSTOR
• Hamby, Alonzo. Liberalism and Its Challengers: From F.D.R. to Bush (1992).
• Jensen, Richard. "The Last Party System: Decay of Consensus, 1932-1980," in The Evolution of American Electoral Systems (Paul Kleppner et al. eds.) (1981) pp 219-225,
• Ladd Jr., Everett Carll with Charles D. Hadley. Transformations of the American Party System: Political Coalitions from the New Deal to the 1970s 2nd ed. (1978).
• Leuchtenburg, William E. In the Shadow of FDR: From Harry Truman to George W. Bush (2001)
• Manza, Jeff and Clem Brooks; Social Cleavages and Political Change: Voter Alignments and U.S. Party Coalitions, Oxford University Press, 1999
• Manza, Jeff; "Political Sociological Models of the U.S. New Deal" Annual Review of Sociology, 2000 pp 297+
• Milkis, Sidney M. and Jerome M. Mileur, eds. The New Deal and the Triumph of Liberalism (2002)
• Milkis, Sidney M. The President and the Parties: The Transformation of the American Party System Since the New Deal (1993)
• Robinson, Edgar Eugene. They Voted for Roosevelt: The Presidential Vote, 1932-1944 (1947) tables of votes by county
• Shafer, Byron E. and Anthony J. Badger, eds. Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775-2000 (2001)
• Sternsher, Bernard. "The New Deal Party System: A Reappraisal," Journal of Interdisciplinary History v.15#1 (Summer, 1984), pp. 53-81 JSTOR
• Sternsher, Bernard. "The Emergence of the New Deal Party System: A Problem in Historical Analysis of Voter Behavior," Journal of Interdisciplinary History, v.6#1 (Summer, 1975), pp. 127-149 online at JSTOR
• Sundquist, James L. Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States (1983)