Caucus is any gathering of individuals to nominate candidates for office or to endorse a policy or program. In many countries, the members of a political party hold a caucus to develop party policy and to nominate candidates for leadership positions. In the United States, for example, the members of each party in Congress traditionally hold a caucus to select congressional leaders.
Another type of caucus, called a participatory caucus, is prominent in the United States in presidential election years. The best-known participatory caucuses are those held in Iowa by the Republican and Democratic parties. The Iowa caucuses traditionally have been the first major events in a series of state caucuses and primary elections that end in the nomination of each party’s presidential candidate. For this reason, the Iowa caucuses receive a great deal of coverage from newspapers, television, and other media.
A participatory caucus may be attended by any eligible voter willing to acknowledge association with the party that holds it. People who attend such caucuses in presidential election years help elect delegates to a political convention that covers a larger region, such as a county. Typically, each delegate selected has promised to support a particular candidate at the convention.
During the early history of the United States, small groups of party leaders chose candidates for office in meetings called party caucuses. But the party caucus system became unpopular because it gave other party members little voice in the selection of candidates.
Since the 1830’s, major U.S. political parties have used national conventions to nominate their candidates for president. During much of the 1800’s, delegates to these conventions were selected by party officials at state conventions. These officials were typically selected, in turn, by party officials at local conventions. This arrangement became known as the party convention system. In the late 1800’s, some Western states began using participatory caucuses instead of conventions at the lowest level of this process, usually in individual voting districts. This change opened local participation to anyone who turned out at the caucus. Other states, including Iowa, eventually adopted this caucus-convention system.
The party convention system has been in decline since the early 1900’s and the caucus-convention system since the 1960’s. Most states now use primary elections instead. Some states still use caucuses to select or endorse candidates for public office at the local or state level.
See also House of Representatives (Organization of the U.S. House); Political convention; Primary election; Senate (The leaders of the Senate).
