The fantasy of non-partisan politics

Pete Abel is a moderate. But earlier this week, he decided he was going to switch his registration from Independent to Democrat because he’s sick and tired of partisan politics. How does that make sense? Well, if everyone became a Democrat, then the party would be so broad that it would become incoherent (and there would be no Republicans).

Basically, Pete had a plan to rid American politics of those awful dinosaurs known as political parties. Yesterday, Pete stepped back from his plan, declaring it immoderate. But he will “still continue to advocate for the abolition of political parties.”

I myself am no great fan of political parties. But to paraphrase my comment about ideology from earlier this week, political parties are the worst way to organize democratic politics, except for all the others.

Inevitably, partisanship has a nasty side. As a result, well-intentioned moderates constantly fantasize about a world without parties and partisanship. On the one hand, this is good, because it serves as a counterweight to excessive partisanship. On the other hand, it is a fantasy that leads to bitterness and disengagement.

What would democracy be like without political parties? It’s hard to say. No developed nation has democracy without parties. Japan came close for quite a while, but that’s a great argument for partisanship. Without a real opposition, power migrated behind closed doors.

In the developing world, the absence of political parties is almost an unmitigated disaster. In general, it results in extreme patronage politics. Look at Afghanistan. Arguably, Venezuelan democracy has degenerated so tragically because its pre-Chavez parties were such a failure.

In the US, several states and major cities are close to being one-party democracies. I grew in New York City, so I’ve seen some of that first hand. The result is a city that periodically elects GOP mayors in order to correct the excesses of one-party rule — a very sub-optimal approach.

So, if you want, you can lament political parties as the reason we have Rush Limbaugh and the Daily Kos. Or you can come terms with the fact that parties ensure the intensity of competition that gives voters a real choice. Even better, parties often find themselves fighting for moderates and independents, who serve as the margin of victory.