Political Parties and the Public Interest
| Author | E.E. Schattschneider |
| Published date | 01 March 1952 |
| Date | 01 March 1952 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/000271625228000104 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
18
Political
Parties
and
the
Public
Interest
By
E.
E.
SCHATTSCHNEIDER
S INCE
politics
deals
with
the
at-
tempts
of
people
to
live
together
peaceably
and
well,
it
is
obvious
that
ethical
questions
are
close
to
the
es-
sence
of
politics
at
all
times.
This
is
especially
true
of
the
management
of
the
largest
and
most
powerful
political
organizations
produced
in
our
civiliza-
tion,
the
political
parties.
The
fact
that
the future
of
the
American
people
and
perhaps
the
future
of
the
greater
part
of
the
human
race
may
depend
on
the
work
of
these
political
organizations
in-
evitably
implicates
our
whole
value
sys-
tem
in
most
of
the
great
controversies
developed
by
the
parties.
To
say
that
the
conduct
of
people
en-
gaged
in
party
politics
is
to
be
judged
by
the
moral
standards
commonly
ac-
cepted
by
the
community
in
nonpoliti-
cal
matters
is
to
make
an
assumption
about
politics,
however.
To
speak
of
morals
in
connection
with
party
politics
is
to
assume
that
the
parties
are
delib-
erate,
purposeful,
and
responsible
forms
of
social
activity
carried
on
by
people
who
know
what
they
want
to
achieve
and
are
able
to
act
accordingly;
for
there
can
be
no
ethical
basis
of
politics
if
we
suppose
that
political
behavior
is
irrational
and
uncontrollable,
or
if
we
assume
that
parties
are
what
they
are
because
they
must
be.
In
this
article
we
assume,
therefore,
that
the
parties
are
what
we
make
them
and
that
we
are
responsible
for
the
parties
we
pro-
duce,
because
we
can
create
any
kind
of
party
system
we
have
the
intelli-
gence
and
the
energy
to
create.
Questions
of
morals
in
politics
can
be
defined
very
largely
in
terms
of
the
public
interest.
If
the
party
system
serves
the
public
interest
broadly,
it
is
reasonable
to
suppose
that
it
can
be
de-
fended
on
moral
grounds.
For
this
rea-
son
it
is
proper
to
discuss
the
relations
between
political
parties
and
the
pub-
lic
interest
in
this
symposium.
Party
politics
deals
with
conflict.
Whether
or
not
any
conflict
is
good
or
evil
depends
on
what
it
is
about
and
how
it
is
car-
ried
on.
It
is
necessary
therefore
to
see,
first,
what
kinds
of
conflicts
lend
them-
selves
to
exploitation
by
the
party
sys-
tem.
CONFLICT
AND
UNITY
All
politics
consists
of
attempts
to
organize
and
exploit
the
conflicts
and
agreements
in
our
society
for
some
pur-
pose
considered
good
or
desirable
by
the
manipulators
of
the
system.
Ideas
about
conflict
and
unity
are
inherent,
for
example,
in
all
concepts
of
democ-
racy,
in
all
ideas
about
liberty,
and
in
majority
rule,
all
of
which
assume
that
there
will
always
be
differences
of
opin-
ion and
conflicts
of
interest
in
the
com-
munity.
It
is
not
always
equally
well
under-
stood,
however,
that
every
conflict
nec-
essarily
implies
unity
within
the
an-
tagonistic
and
conflicting
groups,
inter-
ests,
minorities,
and
majorities.
This
is
true
because
conflicts
become
possible
only
when
each
of
the
contending
fac-
tions
can
mobilize
and
consolidate
its
own
supporters.
Without
such
unifica-
tion
no
faction
could
function
as
an
instrument
of
conflict,
and
no
conflict
could
be
developed
beyond
its
most
rudimentary
forms
as
a
disorganized
and
amorphous
brawl.
Therefore
every
cleavage
or
alignment
necessarily
unites
people
while
it
divides
them,
and
the
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