Voting: Individual Candidates or Parties?

By Brigitte L. Nacos

When Americans go to the polls a week from Tuesday, many of them will cast their votes for candidates regardless of their party label. As one traditionally Republican-leaning Independent said on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” this morning, she will split her vote in this year’s mid-term elections. But unlike this caller from Ohio, who obviously examined the records and agendas of individual candidates in various races, many voters will be less inclined to vote for individual candidates and more guided by their preference for one or the other party. In this respect, as Michael Kinsley notes in his Washington Post column, “this year seems to be different [from most elections].” Given the low presidential approval ratings, the growing public opposition to the Iraq War, and the outrage over corruption and misbehavior in Washington, chances are indeed that many voters cast protest votes against the ruling Republicans. While attack ads in the most competitive races are more numerous and more vicious this year, most of them are exclusively or partially aimed at discrediting the other major party, its leaders, and its flaws.  

When I first came to the United States, I was rather surprised to learn that many Americans vote for a person, for an individual candidate regardless of his or her party affiliation. After I became a
U.S. citizen, I followed this example until more recently, when partisanship in the Congress and elsewhere increased drastically. I returned to what I had done in my native Germany and what is still common in European democracies—voting for a party regardless of the qualifications of competing candidates. This focus on parties makes sense in systems with membership parties in which elected officials agree with and follow their parties' programs. To be sure, ideological and related policy differences are not uncommon within European parties. But ultimately party discipline prevails in almost all instances. If this is not the case in the governing party or in the governing coalition, there will be new elections.

In the American setting, the major political parties have traditionally given far more leeway to their elected officials to march to their own drummer—even run away from or against the leadership of their own party whether in the Congress or White House, especially during election campaigns. But the partisan polarization of the last years has resulted in more success for both parties to whip their congressional members to line up behind their leaders. 

Under these circumstances, it is far less attractive to vote for individual candidates. If those pundits are right who predict a Democratic take-over of the House of Representatives, such a change could well be the result of increased voting along party lines and decreased candidate-centered votes.

It is an entirely different but even more important question, how increased voting along party lines would affect the work of the next congress.