Caucus

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Caucus (plural caucuses ) refers to a gathering of members and supporters of a party or political grouping, often to select a candidate for high political office. Particularly well-known are the so-called assemblies in which the candidates for the office of president are determined within the party within individual states of the USA (see presidential code in the United States ).

Etymology and conceptual history

The origin of the name is controversial, Indian roots ("tribal assembly", for example from the Algonquin ) are more discussed than a Latin origin. What is certain is that the term was first used in North American English. In 1878 it penetrated England when Joseph Chamberlain organized the Liberal Association in Birmingham , which soon became the model for other liberal associations across England; it was considered an import of the American “political machine” and was given the name caucus by the conservative politician and later Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli . Max Weber describes his emergence in England in connection with the development of tightly led democratic mass parties in the 19th century in his well-known speech "Politics as a Profession" as follows:

"Since 1868 ... the" caucus "system developed first for local elections in Birmingham, then throughout the country . A nonconformist pastor and next to him Josef Chamberlain brought this system into being. The occasion was the democratization of the right to vote. In order to gain the masses, it became necessary to set up an enormous apparatus of democratic-looking associations, to form an electoral association in every city district, to keep operations moving continuously, to bureaucratize everything tightly: increasingly employed paid civil servants, from the local election committees, in which soon a total of perhaps 10% of the voters were organized, elected main mediators with the right to co-opt as the formal bearers of party politics. The driving force was the local, especially those interested in local politics ... who also raised the financial resources in the first place. This newly emerging machine, no longer run by parliament, soon had to fight with the previous rulers, especially with the whip , but, supported by the local interests, passed the fight so victoriously that the whip had to submit and make a pact with it. The result was a centralization of all violence in the hands of the few and ultimately the one person who stood at the head of the party ... A Caesarist-plebiscitary element in politics: the dictator of the election battlefield, appeared. That was very soon expressed. In 1877 the caucus first appeared in state elections. With brilliant success: Disraeli's fall in the midst of his great successes was the result. "

Caucus as a pre-election procedure in the USA

The most popular form of caucus is one of two United States presidential primaries through which United States political parties decide who to run for the presidency. In the caucus procedure, the delegates tied to certain candidates for the national party congresses are determined in several successive rounds and often in open voting. The term convention is mainly used in the southern United States and in some outlying areas . This is essentially the same process. The other type of primaries, the primary , is decided in a single round and corresponds to the usual secret balloting.

background

The American presidential election takes place every four years on election day, the national election day in November. The political parties hold so-called primary elections from January to June of the election year for the grassroots free choice of a suitable candidate. The round begins in January with the caucus in Iowa, which was introduced in its present form in 1972, followed by the primary in New Hampshire . The parties attach great importance to these first primaries for the further pre-election campaign, as they show an initial mood among the electorate.

history

In the past, the term caucus only stood for the informal leadership circle of a party. This leadership circle selected candidates for public office ( King Caucus ). From approx. 1796 to 1824 the members of the two major parties came together for secret "congressional caucus" and agreed on their respective candidates. The purpose of this system of party meetings is to indicate, through the election of delegates, which candidates the party members of each state prefer. There were far-reaching reforms after Hubert Humphrey was elected as a compromise candidate for the Democratic presidential election in 1968 , although he had not participated in the primary elections. After the party congress, which was accompanied by riots in Chicago , primary and primary elections were introduced across the board and their process was regulated by law by the states.

procedure

There are no uniform rules for the course of a caucus. They differ by state as well as by party. There is no statute of parties on the nomination process that is valid in the entire USA. In general, however, the following applies: For the caucus, party members or supporters registered only for the purpose of voting initially gather in small circles at the lower, local level. Joins and new registrations are allowed even at the beginning of the meetings. However, every American can only register with one of the two parties. Before the actual election, there is a discussion and discussion about which of several internal party presidential candidates the party should send to the election for the highest office in the state. The actual election takes place very differently on the caucuses, partly through secret voting, but partly the supporters gather around a name tag of their preferred candidate. Those who are still undecided form their own group and thus express their wish for further information. The supporters of each group are now encouraged to stand up for their preferred candidate through lectures or individual discussions in order to change their minds as many as possible and to bring them to their own group. At the end of the event, party officials count the members of the various groups and then use different procedures to calculate how many delegates each candidate is assigned.

Democrats held caucus in 14 states in 2008. Unlike the Republicans, they have a 15 percent hurdle. If a candidate does not receive the required minimum number of votes in the first ballot, he will not be assigned any delegates and his supporters can, after further deliberations, join the camp of a more successful candidate in a second ballot. The distribution of votes is proportional to the Democrats in all states. If a candidate receives e.g. B. 40% of the votes, 40% of the delegates who are supposed to represent this caucus at the next higher level of the caucus process are assigned to him.

There were Republican caucuses in 13 states in the 2008 election year. The delegates are often assigned to the candidates according to a “winner takes all” procedure, which means that 100% of the delegates are assigned to the winner. The defeated candidates go away empty-handed. However, in some states, there is also a proportional allocation for Republicans.

After the end of the first round of caucuses, similar competitions will be held nationwide on other levels, in each of which it is determined which delegates will be sent to the next higher level. This process can take several months. Due to the fact that most delegates are tied to a presidential candidate, the election of this state can essentially be predicted after the first round.

States with a caucus

Caucuses were held by both parties in 2008 [obsolete] in the following states : Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming. In Idaho and Nebraska only the Democratic Party, in Montana only the Republican Party organizes caucuses.

Differences Between Caucus and Primary

In the Primaries (actually primary elections) registered voters can choose directly for which of the candidates the delegates of this state should vote for at the national convention . With the caucus, local delegates are elected, who in turn appoint delegates for the national party congress in several successive steps at further supraregional assemblies.

Another difference to the primaries lies in the lectures and discussions among the participants, which take place on the same day and precede the actual election.

Primaries are secret elections with ballot papers or voting machines, whereas in the case of the caucus, one's own opinion is often non-secretly and in various ways, e.g. B. by group formation around the chosen candidate.

In the case of a primary, the vote can be cast at any time during the opening hours of the polling station, and postal voting is also possible. A caucus, on the other hand, is scheduled at a precisely defined time; whoever is not present then cannot participate in the later election.

criticism

Due to the compulsion to attend the voting in person at a certain time - without the possibility of postal voting - not all voters can participate in this form of the free choice of candidates.

The term caucus in another context

In the United States and some Commonwealth countries, the term “caucus” is used in a different sense. In the US, political interest groups are commonly referred to as caucus . Among the best known are the Congressional Caucuses of the Democrats and Republicans, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus , the parliamentary interest groups of blacks and Hispanics . Interest groups such as the Peak Oil Caucus in the US Congress are also cross-party; they are open to Democratic and Republican MPs who want to pay special attention to a single political issue - here Peak Oil .

In Canada and New Zealand, "caucus" refers to a group of parliamentarians who belong to the same party, for example in the sense of a parliamentary group. In Australia, on the other hand, this is not the name of the parliamentary group itself, but only the regular meetings of parliamentarians from a particular party, the Labor Party. The term was introduced in Australia by a native American at the beginning of the last century when the first government was formed.

The British writer Lewis Carroll mentioned the "caucus" as early as 1885 in his book Alice in Wonderland . The third chapter, “Caucus Races and What Becomes It”, alludes in a satirical form to political procedures in the USA at the time:

"'What is a caucus race?' asked Alice [...] 'Well,' said the dodo, 'the best way to explain it is to play it.' […] First it marked the railway, a kind of circle […], then the whole company was set up here and there on the railway. There was no: 'one, two, three, gone!' counted, but they started running when it occurred to them, stopping as it occurred to them, so it was not easy to tell when the race was over. However, when they had been running for about half an hour and completely bored, the dodo suddenly exclaimed, 'The race is over!' and they crowded around him, out of breath, asking, 'But who won?' The dodo could not answer this question without deep thought. […] Finally the dodo said: 'Everyone has won, and everyone should have prizes.' "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Große Webster 1986, Vol. 1, p. 355, for the history of concepts cf. The New Encyclopedia Britannica Vol. 2, pp. 966 f. (1993).
  2. ↑ Max Weber: "Politics as a Profession"
  3. ↑ Political System of the USA, Information on Civic Education from the Federal Agency for Civic Education, No. 283/2004, p. 56
  4. ↑ Stephen J. Wayne: Presidential Nominations and American Democracy . US Diplomatic Mission to Germany, as of March 2004, accessed on February 1, 2016.
  5. ^ Primary / Caucus / Convention Primary / Caucus / Convention Glossary . The Green Paper, as of September 20, 2015, accessed on February 1, 2016.
  6. ↑ Political System of the USA, Information on Civic Education from the Federal Agency for Civic Education, No. 283/2004, p. 25
  7. ^ A b Robert Longley: How Political Party Convention Delegates are Chosen And the Role the Delegates Play . about news, December 19, 2015, accessed February 1, 2016.
  8. ↑ a b c Why delegates matter in the presidential race . CNN , January 3, 2008, accessed February 1, 2016.
  9. ^ National Conference of State Legislatures: 2012 Presidential Primary Calendar
  10. ^ Primary election Feb. 5; absentee voting possible . . Herald News
  11. ↑ Engl. Wikipedia