Page 66 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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The Rise of Majoritarianism
through the 1810s and into the ’20s, their weakly coupled networks and
allianceskeptthemfromnationalizingorinstitutionalizingthemselves. 33
The “Republican” in Vermont in 1796 would have had little connection
with a “Republican” in South Carolina, and sharing party labels did not
necessarily dispose citizens toward the same presidential candidates or
political ideas. Despite the efforts of party-builders, the nascent parties
simply could not gain national traction so long as it was largely impos-
sible to communicate systematically on a national scale. This failure of
national political integration formed a continuing basis for the highly
sectional voting that lasted until the contests of 1836, 1840, and 1844,
even as the parties began to solidify. 34
The communication problems affecting everything from representa-
tion to party development thrust the country into what Paul Goodman
calls a “crisis of integration.” Democratic action rooted in the public in-
terest and resting on the legitimacy of majority sentiment was for the
most part impossible, since “no one could authoritatively know or in-
terpret the majority’s wishes because the people themselves often had no
opinion, and when they did, it was hopelessly divided or fragmented.” 35
Elected officials maneuvering for influence had little chance to appeal
to the demands of the public or to invoke a public mandate. In the
arena of public opinion, these conditions created “the politics of as-
sent,” whereby the many fragmented publics largely assented to decisions
made on their behalf by the American political gentry. 36 Isolation and
the resulting political enervation were distinguishing characteristics of
democracy in the Jeffersonian period. 37 In the near absence of the flow
of even simple political information, no important political interme-
diaries could arise to organize the public, initiate collective action, or

33
Paul Goodman, “The First American Party System,” in William Nisbet Chambers and
Walter Dean Burnham, eds., The American Party Systems: Stages of Political Devel-
opment (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), p. 86; Richard P. McCormick,
“Political Development and the Second Party System,” in William Nisbet Chambers
and Walter Dean Burnham, eds., The American Party Systems; Richard P. McCormick,
The Second American Party System: Party Formation in the Jacksonian Era (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1966).
34 Ronald P. Formisano, “Federalists and Republicans: Parties, Yes – System, No,” in Paul
Kleppner et al., eds., The Evolution of American Electoral Systems (Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood, 1981), pp. 33–76; McCormick, “Political Development and the Second
Party System.”
35 Goodman, “The First American Party System,” p. 61.
36
Schudson, The Good Citizen.
37
James Sterling Young, The Washington Community 1800–1828 (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1966).
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