Re: SSSP session on Democratic Party, comment

Hello,
        Less that I want to present and more of a comment. Plus, regardless
of the Democratic or Republican 'blame' that you seem to indicate, one has
to see the 'choice' of two parties as something systemically related to the
structure of United States voting laws. I am sure many well spoken and well
written critiques could be created on the topic you propose, though for me,
the entire sense of what to blame, structural voting preferences, is getting
entirely sidetracked here. Very particular structures have set up these
default informal bodies (Democrat and Republican) as simply placeholders,
position holders, blameless in that sense for the informal political
processes that are selected for within the laws. 
         If people want systemic change, it requires systemic changes in the
structure of how we vote, which will change the ways that informal politics
(party formation) will occur on a long term basis--whether it occurs on a
plurality sense with more than several parties vying, or it occurs in the
very hierarchial United States version of the 'two-party-state one party
state', where only interchange is possible, instead of utilizing the
government for the interaction and formation of policy formally, instead of
informally deciding on it as the process selects for in the current law
regime. And third parties, what effect do they have in the current law
regime? Opposition parties within the current law regime (which historically
has about the same effect IN THIS CONTEXT, regardless of its 'left' or
'right' origins, of cutting the left (or right) into pieces, and default
electing the largest majoritarian party--typically (operationalized by) the
Republicans. In other words, it ironically selects against widening the
democratic procedure to have this system in place. When that occurs, the
smaller the hegemony inclusion becomes in the state.  
        In other words blaming either the Democratic or Republican parties
only buys into a poor analysis of what leads us to have such poor choices in
the first place. ;-) The question should be why we have these choices in the
first place limited to two in such a long term historical sense. I hope you
take this in the spirit it was intended.
        I hope someone speaks of this at the conference. Otherwise, it will
be historically interesting, though with little praxis of what to do about 
it.
        I have one suggestion for someone to contact perhaps. He wrote the
following article which deals with this informal/formal interaction on the
urban level in the United States:

        " Communism, Race, and Proportional Representation "


http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/kolesar.htm


Regards,

Mark Whitaker


At 10:48 PM 2/13/00 -0600, Spectors wrote:
>Please feel free to post this to other sociology lists:
>
>I'm organizing a session at the SSSP (Society for the Study of Social
Problems) conference in Washington, D.C. The SSSP has a day of sessions
before ASA starts and then overlaps for two days, usually within walking
distance of the ASA hotels. 
>
>The title of the session is:"Democratic Party: Party of the Poor or Party
of Poverty?"  The theme is to explore the ways that the Democratic Party has
maintained anti-working class policies. (I figure that it's not that
enlightening to explore the ways that the Republican party has maintained
anti-working class policies....)
>
>But, we could use a couple of more papers. So if anyone reading this would
like to submit something for that session, please send me an e-mail
spectors@netnitco.net and send a copy to spector@calumet.purdue.edu
>It is not necessary to send a polished, finished paper.  We are not
necessarily looking for a paper with tons of empirical research. On the
other hand, the presenter should avoid the other extreme of just giving some
off-the-cuff "opinions" about the state of Democratic Party politics.
>
>If you are interested in possibly participating, please contact me right
away and give me a general idea of your interests.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Alan Spector 
>
>I
>I
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><DIV>Please feel free to post this to other sociology lists:</DIV>
><DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
><DIV>I'm organizing a session at the SSSP (Society for the Study of Social 
>Problems) conference in Washington, D.C. The SSSP has a day of sessions 
>before 
>ASA starts and then overlaps for two days, usually within walking distance 
>of 
>the ASA hotels. </DIV>
><DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
><DIV>The title of the session is:&quot;Democratic Party: Party of the Poor 
>or 
>Party of Poverty?&quot;&nbsp; The theme is to explore the ways that the 
>Democratic Party has maintained anti-working class policies. (I figure that
it's 
>not that enlightening to explore the ways that the Republican party has 
>maintained anti-working class policies....)</DIV>
><DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
><DIV>But, we could use a couple of more papers. So if anyone reading this
would 
>like to submit something for that session, please send me an e-mail <A 
>href="mailto:spectors@netnitco.net">spectors@netnitco.net</A> and send a
copy to 
><A
href="mailto:spector@calumet.purdue.edu">spector@calumet.purdue.edu</A></DIV>
><DIV>It is not necessary to send a polished, finished paper.&nbsp; We are 
>not 
>necessarily looking for a paper with tons of empirical research. On the 
>other 
>hand, the presenter should avoid the other extreme of just giving some 
>off-the-cuff &quot;opinions&quot; about the state of Democratic Party 
>politics.</DIV>
><DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
><DIV>If you are interested in possibly participating, please contact me 
>right 
>away and give me a general idea of your interests.</DIV>
><DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
><DIV>Thanks,</DIV>
><DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
><DIV>Alan Spector&nbsp;</DIV>
><DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
><DIV><FONT color=#000000 size=2>I</FONT></DIV>
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>