| | Myth & Reality
The Myth of Nonpartisan Elections
The Progressive Era around the turn of the twentieth century instigated many changes in American politics, not the least of which was the evolvement of nonpartisan elections. The intention of the political reformers was clear. By taking political parties out of the election process - that is, by running elections in which candidates did not affiliate with any political party but ran as unaffiliated or nonpartisan office seekers - we would clean up politics. For the reformers around the turn of the century as well as for many citizens today, nonpartisan elections were the answer to a "party-free, corrupt-free" political system.
Whether or not parties needed curbing, nonpartisan elections have become a popular electoral mechanism in the United States. More than half of the over eighty thousand U.S. government units use nonpartisan elections to fill their offices. Yet even though nonpartisan elections truly take place in some areas of the nation, many, if not most, have strong partisan overtones and often blatant party participation. No better example can be found than the city council elections in Chicago. Although these are ostensibly nonpartisan elections, most voters are well aware of the partisan loyalties of the candidates. Indeed, the political roots of many of the candidates can be found in the Democratic party organization and, to a far lesser extent, in the weak city Republican organization. This is also true in many smaller communities around the country, where political clubs and caucuses are often merely pseudonyms for regular party organizations. So although there is a debate over whether nonpartisan elections favor the programs and policy positions of one party over the other, the idea that you can take politics or partisanship out of government is unquestionably a kind of myth.
Source: For a discussion on nonpartisan elections, see Willis Hawley, Nonpartisan Elections and the Case for Party Politics (New York: Wiley, 1968); and Susan Welch and Timothy Bledsoe, "The Partisan Consequences of Nonpartisan Elections and the Changing Nature of Urban Politics,"American Journal of Political Science, 30 February 1986), 128-139.
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