The Political Culture of the Democratic and Republican Parties
Although political parties have been a pervasive part of American politics, studies of their internal organization and style have not received a great deal of attention. Some commentators have noted that "despite their deceptively similar governing forms" the two major parties are "distinctively separate entities,"' and others have observed that "the two parties are different not only in name, program, and coalitional components but also in type," yet no one has attempted any systematic comparison.2 It is the contention of this article that despite the similarities in governing forms, and even policy outcomes, there is nonetheless a fundamental difference between the national Democratic and Republican parties. That difference can be seen not so much in outcomes, which must pass through the filter of political reality, as in the mode by which internal politics is conducted. The difference is not one of purpose, but of political culture. I am relying on the definition of political culture in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences: