Do Political Parties Matter?
By Stephen J. Dubner
That’s the question asked by the Wharton economists Fernando Ferreira and Joseph Gyourko. But they are not talking about national political parties. In that realm, party affiliation has indeed been shown to have a strong effect on legislation and policy.
By Stephen J. Dubner
That’s the question asked by the Wharton economists Fernando Ferreira and Joseph Gyourko. But they are not talking about national political parties. In that realm, party affiliation has indeed been shown to have a strong effect on legislation and policy.
No, Ferreira and Gyourko are interested in whether party affiliation matters on the local level — and their answer, essentially, is no. Using data from more than 4,500 U.S. mayoral elections between 1950 and 2005 in more than 400 cities with populations of at least 25,000, here is what they learned:
[W]e find that party labels do not affect the size of government, the allocation of spending or crime rates, even though there is a large political advantage to incumbency in terms of the probability of winning the next election … In particular, there is a relatively high degree of household homogeneity at the local level that appears to provide the proper incentives for local politicians to be able to credibly commit to moderation and discourages strategic extremism.
While few people would accuse Rudy Giuliani of having “commit[ted] to moderation” or avoiding “strategic extremism” when he was mayor of New York City, the fact remains that he was the rare Republican elected by an extraordinarily Democratic town, and he was generally well regarded until close to the end of his second term. By then, it was mainly his temperament and personal affairs that had turned off many swing voters.
It is true that the mayor of New York City has a larger budget and set of responsibilities than the governors of some states; still, he is the lone mayor running in this year’s presidential election, and is leading the way at that. It will be interesting to see if and how Giuliani, running against a pack of men and a woman who have long been faithful to their national party, assumes the true stripes of his Republican affiliation.
8 comments:
The United States should have listened to George Washington when during his Farewell Address he said that we should stay away from political parties because it would tear the nation apart.
Of course, I do agree with one group more than another, but this was an interesting article to show how parties don't affect everything.
Yes, political parties matter.
I agree with the author of the article. Political parties solve the same problems, and leave the same problems. Crime will continue regardless of who is elected. Most people pick a party just because it seems popular.
I honestly don't think political parties matter that much.
During the election they ALL make empty promises, and end up screwing up just as much as the president before them, both democrat and republican.
I also think that political parties don't matter on a local level either. If your city is predominantly democratic, then it really doesn't matter if you're republican, because you're city will be looked at as a whole.
I do agree with JayRussel, most people really do pick a party according to what's right at the time, or most "popular".
Of course political parties matter! True, they are not right all the time but different political parties believe very different things.
I agree with the author of the article as well. No matter what party is choosen to run a town or a country. In the end political parties do not affect everything or really anyone. No one person is just looked at; your community is looked at like a whole; and that will determine whether you are seen as democratic or republican.
I do agree with one politicl party more but in the end they really do not matter it all depends on the issues and way the people want them solved.
No matter what party is in office problems are left unresolved
The US consists of different people with different views. Each political party represents different views. Political parties do matter because if there was none, how do people know what is right or wrong.
Jiaqi Niu
4th Period
10th Grade
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