Are the parties too focused on policy programs?

We have the parties that we said we wanted: they …

An episode of the The Science of Politics podcast, hosted by Niskanen Center, titled "Are the parties too focused on policy programs?" was published on April 2, 2025 and runs 44 minutes.

April 2, 2025 ·44m · The Science of Politics

Summary

We have the parties that we said we wanted: they compete over extensive policy programs, with voters making decisions among clear issue position alternatives. But how did they get here and have they now gone too far? Katherine Krimmel finds that the American parties became extensively programmatic as they lost vestiges of clientelism and became national parties after federal growth and civil rights. But Trump may be changing the nature of the party system. And running on the issues may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Episode Description