Caucus

A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a specific political party or movement. The term originated in the United States, but has spread to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Nepal. As the use of the term has expanded, the exact definition has come to vary between political cultures.

This article is about political meetings. For the geographic region, see Caucasus. For the purported ancestor of Caucasians, see Caucas.

Origin of the term
Lewis Carroll mocked the futility of caucuses in "A Caucus-Race and a Long Tale", Chapter 3 of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865): when the "Caucus-race" of running in a circle stops, everyone is declared a winner by the Dodo and Alice is told to hand out prizes to all others, receiving her own thimble as her prize.

The origin of the word caucus is debated, but it is generally agreed that it first came into use in the British colonies of North America.[1]

A February 1763 entry in the diary of John Adams of Braintree, Massachusetts, is one of the earliest appearances of Caucas, already with its modern connotations of a "smoke-filled room" where candidates for public election are pre-selected in private:

This day learned that the Caucas Clubb meets at certain Times in the Garret of Tom Daws, the Adjutant of the Boston Regiment. He has a large House, and he has a moveable Partition in his Garrett, which he takes down and the whole Clubb meets in one Room.
There they smoke tobacco till you cannot see from one End of the Garrett to the other. There they drink Phlip I suppose, and there they choose a Moderator, who puts Questions to the Vote regularly, and Selectman, Assessors, Collectors, Wardens, Fire Wards, and Representatives are Regularly chosen before they are chosen in the Town ...[2]

An article in Great Leaders and National Issues of 1896, surveying famous presidential campaigns of the past, begins with an unsourced popular etymology of the origin of the caucus:[3]

The Origin of the "Caucus"
The presidential nominating convention is a modern institution. In the early days of the Republic a very different method was pursued in order to place the candidates for the highest office in the land before the people.
In the first place, as to the origin of the "caucus." In the early part of the eighteenth century a number of caulkers connected with the shipping business in the North End of Boston held a meeting for consultation. That meeting was the germ of the political caucuses which have formed so prominent a feature of our government ever since its organization. The anti-Britain episode happened on March 5, 1770 and on that occasion five Bostonians were killed by the English musketry; but this interpretation seems to be contradicted, besides by the abovementioned John Adams, also by William Gordon (1728–1807), who lived the whole course of the American Revolution and shortly thereafter published his history of those events: "The word caucus, and its derivative caucusing, are often used in Boston […] The word is not of novel invention. More than fifty years ago, Mr. Samuel Adams's father, and twenty others, one or two from the north end of the town, where all the ship business is carried on, used to meet, make a caucus, and lay their plan for introducing certain persons into places' of trust and power."[4]

No wholly satisfactory etymology has been documented.[5] James Hammond Trumbull suggested to the American Philological Association that it comes from an Algonquian word for "counsel", 'cau´-cau-as´u'. The word might also derive from the Algonquian cawaassough, meaning an advisor, talker, or orator.[6] This explanation was favoured by Charles Dudley Warner.[7] The American Heritage Dictionary suggests that it possibly derived from medieval Latin caucus, meaning "drinking vessel",[8] such as might have been used for the flip drunk at Caucus Club of colonial Boston. In fact, the appearance of the term coincides with the spreading in England – and therefore also in America – of the inns they called cocues because they were places to drink the new cheap liquor called "gin" or "cuckoo liquor" since it was obtained from the distillation of so-called "cuckoo barley", namely barley sown very late in the spring and therefore unsuitable for the distillation of beer.[9] That these were places where people drank abundantly is also attested by Obadiah Benjamin Franklin Bloomfield in his autobiography: "Richard had set out hospitably [...] A caucus had been accordingly held by these worthies, and it was resolved nem. con. that they should first make a drunkard of him, and then pluck him, aye, even of the last feather."[10]

An analogical Latin-type plural "cauci" is occasionally used.[11]

In alternative dispute resolution

The term caucus is also used in mediation, facilitation and other forms of alternate dispute resolution to describe circumstances wherein, rather than meeting at a common table, the disputants retreat to a more private setting to process information, agree on negotiation strategy, confer privately with counsel or with the mediator, or simply gain "breathing room" after the often emotionally difficult interactions that can occur in the common area where all parties are present.[12] The degree to which caucuses are used can be a key defining element, and often an identifier, of the mediation model being used. For example, "facilitative mediation" tends to discourage the use of caucuses and tries to keep the parties talking at a single table, while "evaluative mediation" may allow parties to separate more often and rely on the mediator to shuttle information and offers back and forth.[13]

In the United States
Precincts from Washington State's 46th Legislative District caucus in a school lunchroom (2008).

In United States politics and government, caucus has several distinct but related meanings. Members of a political party or subgroup may meet to coordinate members' actions, choose group policy, or nominate candidates for various offices.

Caucuses to select election candidates
See also: United States presidential primary and United States presidential nominating convention

There is no provision for the role of political parties in the United States Constitution. In the first two presidential elections, the Electoral College handled nominations and elections in 1789 and 1792 which selected George Washington. After that, Congressional party or a state legislature party caucus selected the party's presidential candidates. Nationally, these caucuses were replaced by the party convention starting in 1832 following the lead of the Anti-Masonic Party 1831 convention.[14]

The term caucus is frequently used to discuss the procedures used by some states to select presidential nominees such as the Iowa caucuses, the first of the modern presidential election cycle, and the Texas caucuses.[15] Since 1980 such caucuses have become, in the aggregate, an important component of the nomination process.[16]

Congressional caucuses

Another meaning is a sub grouping of officials with shared affinities or ethnicities who convene, often but not always to advocate, agitate, lobby or to vote collectively, on policy. At the highest level, in Congress and many state legislatures, Democratic and Republican members organize themselves into a caucus (occasionally called a "conference").[17] There can be smaller caucuses in a legislative body, including those that are multi-partisan or even bicameral. Of the many Congressional caucuses, one of the best-known is the Congressional Black Caucus, a group of African-American members of Congress. Another prominent example is the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, whose members voice and advance issues affecting Hispanics in the United States, including Puerto Rico. In a different vein, the Congressional Internet Caucus is a bipartisan group of Members who wish to promote the growth and advancement of the Internet. Other congressional caucuses such as the Out of Iraq Caucus, are openly organized tendencies or political factions (within the House Democratic Caucus, in this case), and strive to achieve political goals, similar to a European "platform", but generally organized around a single issue.

In Commonwealth nations

Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa

The term is used in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. However, when used in these countries, "caucus" is more often a collective term for all members of a party in Parliament, otherwise called a parliamentary group, rather than a word for a regular meeting of these Members of Parliament. Thus, the Australian Federal Parliamentary Labor Party is commonly called "the Labor Caucus".[18]

The word was used in New Zealand from at least the 1890s, when organized political parties began to emerge: the largest of them, the Liberal Party, used it to refer to its parliamentary members.[19] It was introduced to Australia in 1901 by King O'Malley, an American-born Labour member of the first Federal Parliament.

In New Zealand, the term is now used by all political parties,[20] but in Australia, it continues to be used only by the Labor Party. For the Australian Liberal, National and Green parties, the usual equivalent term is "party room". In South Africa all parties use the term "caucus".[21] In Canada, "caucus" refers to all members of a particular party in Parliament, including senators, or a provincial legislature.[22][23] These members elect among themselves a caucus chair who presides over their meetings. This person is an important figure when the party is in opposition, and is an important link between cabinet and the backbench when the party is in government.

In a Westminster System, a party caucus can be quite powerful, as it can elect or dismiss the party's parliamentary leader. The caucus system is a departure from the Westminster tradition in giving members of the upper house a say in the election of the party leader, who may become head of government. The caucus also determines some matters of policy, parliamentary tactics, and disciplinary measures against disobedient MPs. In some parties, the caucus also has the power to elect MPs to Cabinet when the party is in government. For example, this is traditionally so in the Australian Labor Party and the New Zealand Labour Party.

United Kingdom
"Farewell to the Caucus": 1886 cartoon of Francis Schnadhorst, Secretary of the UK National Liberal Federation, leaving Birmingham for London following the split in the party over Irish Home Rule

The term "caucus" is not used in contemporary United Kingdom politics, other than as an occasional loose synonym for a political clique or cabal. In the UK and the Republic of Ireland (not a Commonwealth country), the usual term for all members of a party in Parliament is "parliamentary party".

However, the word "caucus" did have wide currency in the UK in the late 19th century, in reference to a highly structured system of management and control within a political party, specifically the Liberal Party. Originally a pejorative term (with overtones of corrupt American practices) used by detractors of the system, the name was soon adopted by the Liberals themselves. The system had originated at a local level in Birmingham in preparation for the 1868 general election, when, under the 1867 Reform Act, the city had been allocated three parliamentary seats, but each elector had only two votes: in order to spread votes evenly, the secretary of the Birmingham Liberal Association, William Harris (later dubbed the "father of the Caucus") devised a four-tier organizational structure (of ward committees, general committee, executive committee, and management committee) through which Liberal voters in different wards could be instructed in the precise combinations in which to cast their votes.[24][25][26] In 1877 the newly formed National Liberal Federation was given a similar structure, on the initiative of Joseph Chamberlain, and again worked out in detail by Harris.[27] Shortly afterwards the term "caucus" was applied to this system by The Times newspaper, which referred to "the 'caucus' with all its evils", and by the Conservative prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli.[28][29][30][31][32] In 1880 Queen Victoria, following a meeting with Disraeli, wrote disapprovingly in a private memorandum of "that American system called caucus".[33] The Liberal Caucus was also vilified by socialists and trade unionists, who (prior to the establishment of the Independent Labour Party) sought a route to parliamentary representation through the Liberal Party via the Labour Representation League and the Labour Electoral Association, but found their way barred by the party's management structures.[34]

Moisey Ostrogorsky devoted some nine chapters of his Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties (1902) to discussion of the development and operation of the "Caucus" in this sense.[35]

In 2019, two new caucuses were formed in the Conservative Party; the One Nation Conservative caucus[36] and the Blue Collar Conservative caucus.[37]

In organizations

In conventions, where the membership from different parts of the organization may gather, each separate group within the organization may meet prior to the convention as a caucus.[38] Each caucus may decide how the group would vote on various issues that may come up at the convention.[38] Unless the votes are made binding, however, each delegate is still free to vote in any fashion.[38]

See also

References
  1. "Party CAUCUS: The word and its history". community.middlebury.edu. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  2. "Founders Online: Boston Feby. 1763". founders.archives.gov. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  3. Sylvester, Ellis, Edward; Reed, Thomas Brackett; Wilson, William Lyne; Sherman, John (1896). Great Leaders and National Issues of 1896: Containing the Lives of the Republican and Democratic Candidates for President and Vice-president, Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men of All Parties ... Famous Campaigns of the Past, History of Political Parties, Lives of Our Former Presidents, Together with a Full Presentation of the Live Questions of the Day, Including the Tariff, Gold and Silver, Cuba, Armenia, Venezuela, Monroe Doctrine, Etc. International Publishing Company. p. 17.
  4. William Gordon, The History of the Rise, Progress and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America: including an account of the late war, and of the thirteen colonies, from their origin to that period... vol. I, London, 1788, p. 365.
  5. J. L. Bell, ""Boston 1775: Colonial Boston Vocabulary: 'caucus,' part 2"
  6. Wilson, James (1999). The Earth Shall Weep. New York City, NY: Atlantic Monthly Press. pp. 104–105. ISBN 0-87113-730-5.
  7. The Story of Pocahontas", Project Gutenberg
  8. "caucus". American Heritage Dictionary (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. 2000.
  9. See Pub#Beer houses and the 1830 Beerhouse Act and Gin#History.
  10. The Life and Adventures of Obadiah Benjamin Franklin Bloomfield M.D. […] written by himself. Philadelphia. 1818. p. 138.
  11. "Cauci? > National Conference of State Legislatures". www.ncsl.org. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  12. "ADR – How to Get Through Your First Mediation and What You Expect". www.cdc.gov. Archived from the original on 2016-03-19. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  13. Further details in Julie MacFarlane, Dispute Resolution: Readings and Case Studies, 2003:356-62, excerpts from C. Moore, The Mediation Process, 2nd ed. 1996:319-26
  14. Shafer, Byron E (1988). "Emergence of the Presidential The Nomination and the Convention". Bifurcated Politics: Evolution and Reform in the National Party Convention. Harvard University Press. p. 11. ISBN 0674072561. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
  15. Weigel, David (2016-01-23). "Iowa caucuses: Here's how the voting works". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  16. Redlawsk, David P.; Tolbert, Caroline J.; Donovan, Todd (2011). Why Iowa?: How Caucuses and Sequential Elections Improve the Presidential Nominating Process. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226706962.
  17. See, e.g., U.S. House of Representatives Democratic Caucus, U.S. House of Representatives Republican Conference; U.S. Senate Democratic Caucus; U.S. Senate Republican Conference; California State Senate Democratic Caucus
  18. "The Establishment Of The Federal Labor Caucus". australianpolitics.com. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  19. "The Liberal Caucus". The Star (4681). 27 June 1893. p. 3. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  20. "Chapter 7 Parties and Government". www.parliament.nz. New Zealand Parliament. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  21. "The ANC Parliamentary Caucus". www.anc.org.za. Parliament of the Republic of South Africa. Archived from the original on 2016-03-09. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  22. "What's a caucus anyway? 3 things to know". www.cbc.ca. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  23. "Parliament of Canada – A Week in the House of Commons". www.lop.parl.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2016-02-25. Retrieved 2016-02-26.
  24. Garvin, J. L. (1932). The Life of Joseph Chamberlain. 1. London: Macmillan. pp. 254–5.
  25. Briggs, Asa (1993). "Birmingham: the making of a Civic Gospel". Victorian Cities (3rd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 184–240 (190–1).
  26. Cawood, Ian (2019–20). "Birmingham, the 'Caucus' and the 1868 general election". Journal of Liberal History. 105: 30–36.
  27. Garvin 1932, pp. 261–2.
  28. "[Leading article]". The Times (28966). 12 June 1877. p. 9. There is to be a sort of Liberal Parliament organized, which, in American language, seems intended to act as a great Liberal 'Caucus'.
  29. Chamberlain, J. (1 July 1877). "A new political organization". Fortnightly Review. n.s. 22 (127): 126–34 (134). ... what the Times calls the new Liberal Caucus ...
  30. "[Leading article]". The Times. 31 July 1878. p. 10. We may say, and say truly, that the policy of the politicians of the Midland capital will bring upon us the 'caucus' with all its evils, but we cannot hope to checkmate it by giving it a bad name. The apologists of the system will tell us that the 'caucus' is a product of the peculiar conditions of life in America, which need not be apprehended in a society of totally different circumstances
  31. Chamberlain, J. (1 August 1878). "Political organization [letter]". The Times. p. 8. I observe that you, in common with the Prime Minister, have adopted the word 'caucus' to designate our organization.
  32. Chamberlain, J. (1 November 1878). "The Caucus". Fortnightly Review. n.s. 24 (143): 721–41 (721). ... the word ['caucus'] chosen by the Prime Minister to describe [the Liberals'] system, and eagerly caught up by lesser critics ... conveys the idea of secrecy and irresponsibility ...
  33. Buckle, George Earle (1920). The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. 6. London: John Murray. p. 535. That the Liberals had worked on that American system called caucus, originated by the great Radical, Mr Chamberlain.
  34. Owen, James (2014). Labour and the Caucus: working-class radicalism and organised Liberalism in England, 1868–1888. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 978-1-8463-1944-0.
  35. Ostrogorski, M. (1902). Democracy and the Organization of Political Parties. 1. Translated by Clarke, Frederick. London: Macmillan. pp. 161–249, 329–441, 502–529, 580–627.
  36. "Tory MPs form new One Nation group in bid to block hardline Brexiteers in leadership race". Politics Home. 2020-02-25. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  37. "Tory MPs launch rival campaign groups". BBC News. 2019-05-20. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  38. Robert, Henry M.; et al. (2011). Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (11th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press. pp. 605–6. ISBN 978-0-306-82020-5.

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