Why Amateur Party Politics has Withered Away: The Club Movement, Party Reform and the Decline of American Party Organizations*

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article is concerned with the decline of American party organizations and, in particular, with the role of amateur (issue‐oriented) activists in contributing to this. It focuses on two main problems. The first is the relevance of the post‐1968 Democratic party reforms in destroying the role of party in presidential nominations. Contrary to a widely held view, it is argued that a decentralized system of nomination would have emerged in an ‘unreformed’ party. Secondly, the decline of the Democratic club movement is examined. It is argued that the clubs did not develop as major institutions within the party, and that they were an appropriate form of organization for liberals in only very restricted circumstances. The example of Denver is used to illustrate this argument. The decline of the clubs in those parts of America where they had become established is traced to one of three possible causes, each of which would be a sufficient condition for the collapse of the club movement. In conclusion it is argued that the clubs were a transitory form of political organization, linking the period of political machines with that of candidate‐centred politics. Rather than destroying the parties, if anything, they served in the 1950s and early 1960s to diffuse potential anti‐partyism.