A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a specific
political party or movement. The exact definition varies between different countries and political cultures.
The term originated in the
United States, where it can refer to a meeting of members of a political party to nominate candidates, plan policy, etc., in the
United States Congress, or other similar representative organs of government. It has spread to certain
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
countries, including
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
Canada,
New Zealand, and
South Africa, where it generally refers to a regular meeting of all
members of Parliament (MPs) who belong to a
parliamentary party: in such a context, a party caucus can be quite powerful, as it has the ability to elect or dismiss the party's
parliamentary leader. The term was used historically in the
United Kingdom (UK) to refer to the
Liberal Party's internal system of management and control.
Etymology
The word ''caucus'' first came into use in the British colonies of North America, in reference to clubs or private meetings at which political matters were discussed. However, its etymology remains uncertain.
Early usage
The ''
Boston Gazette'' of May 5, 1760, includes the statement: "It is reported, that certain Persons ... are called by the Name of the New and Grand Corcas."
A February 1763 entry in the diary of
John Adams demonstrates that the word already held its modern connotations of a "
smoke-filled room
In U.S. political jargon, a smoke-filled room (sometimes called a smoke-filled back room) is an exclusive, sometimes secret political gathering or round-table-style decision-making process. The phrase is generally used to suggest an inner circl ...
" where candidates for public election were pre-selected in private:
Similarly, William Gordon wrote in 1788:
Origins
There are three main theories for the word's origins:
[J. L. Bell, ""Boston 1775: Colonial Boston Vocabulary: 'caucus,' part 2"](_blank)
/ref>
;Native American
:James Hammond Trumbull
James Hammond Trumbull (December 20, 1821 – August 5, 1897) was an American historian, philologist, bibliographer, and politician. A scholar of American Indian languages, he served as the first Connecticut State Librarian in 1854 and as Secr ...
suggested to the American Philological Association
The Society for Classical Studies (SCS), formerly known as the American Philological Association (APA) is a non-profit North American scholarly organization devoted to all aspects of Greek and Roman civilization founded in 1869. It is the preemine ...
that the word comes from an Algonquian word for "counsel", ''cau´-cau-as´u''. It might also derive from the Algonquian ''cawaassough'', meaning an advisor, talker, or orator. This explanation was favored by Charles Dudley Warner.
;Drinking associations
:The '' American Heritage Dictionary'' suggests that the word possibly derives from medieval Latin ''caucus'', meaning "drinking vessel", such as might have been used for the flip
Flip, FLIP, or flips may refer to:
People
* Flip (nickname), a list of people
* Lil' Flip (born 1981), American rapper
* Flip Simmons, Australian actor and musician
* Flip Wilson, American comedian
Arts and entertainment Fictional characters
* ...
drunk at Caucus Club of colonial Boston (see John Adams quotation above). The appearance of the term coincides with the spreading in England – and therefore also in America – of the inns 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. That caucuses 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."
;Shipbuilding
:A third theory is that the word is a corruption of "caulkers" (i.e. persons who apply caulk), in the sense of shipbuilders. This derivation was suggested by John Pickering in 1816 in ''A Vocabulary; or, Collection of Words and Phrases Which Have Been Supposed to Be Peculiar to the U.S. of America''. It was later adopted by Noah Webster; and also appears in an article of 1896 on the origins of the caucus – in all cases citing the 1788 passage by William Gordon quoted above (though Gordon does not in fact draw a direct connection between shipbuilding and the caucus). It likewise appears in the entry for Samuel Adams in '' Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography'' (1888), where it is suggested that the term's roots lay in Samuel Adams Sr. Samuel Adams Sr. (1689–1748) was an American brewer, father of American Founding Father Samuel Adams, and first cousin once removed of John Adams.
Biography
He was born in Boston, on May 16, 1689 to Captain John Adams and Hannah Adams (nee Webb) ...
's "Caulkers' Club", a political organization formed 1725 by a group of powerful men associated with shipping interests. This entry also discusses Adams Jr.'s fondness for quoting Greek and Latin "after the pedantic fashion of the time", which might provide a context for a coinage with a Latin suffix.
An analogical Latin-type plural "cauci" is occasionally used.
In the United States
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
There is no provision for the role of political parties in the United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven ar ...
. In the first two presidential elections, the Electoral College handled nominations and elections in 1789 and 1792 which selected George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
. 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
The Anti-Masonic Party was the earliest third party in the United States. Formally a single-issue party, it strongly opposed Freemasonry, but later aspired to become a major party by expanding its platform to take positions on other issues. After ...
1831 convention.
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 primary
Primary or primaries may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels
* Primary (band), from Australia
* Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea
* Primary Music, Israeli record label
Works
* ...
presidential election cycle, and the Texas caucuses The Texas caucuses are a political event associated with primaries, the process by which voters in the U.S. state of Texas ultimately select their parties' nominees for various offices. The process as a whole has been referred to as the Texas Two-st ...
. Since 1980 such caucuses have become, in the aggregate, an important component of the nomination process.
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"). There can be smaller caucuses in a legislative body, including those that are multi-partisan
Partisan may refer to:
Military
* Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon
* Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line
Films
* ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film
* ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...
or even bicameral
Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single grou ...
. 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
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties former ...
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
The Out of Iraq Caucus was a Congressional caucus in the United States House of Representatives, created in June 2005.
It consisted of House members who advocated the departure of United States troops from Iraq, effectively ending U.S. participati ...
, 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 also used in certain Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
nations, including Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. However, when used in these countries, "caucus" is more usually 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".
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. It was introduced to Australia in 1901 by King O'Malley, an American-born Labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
member of the first Federal Parliament.
In New Zealand, the term is now used by all political parties, but in Australia, it continues to be used only by the Labor Party. For the Australian Liberal, National
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
and Green parties, the usual equivalent term is "party room". In South Africa all parties use the term "caucus". In Canada, "caucus" refers to all members of a particular party in Parliament, including senators, or a provincial
Provincial may refer to:
Government & Administration
* Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country
* Provincial city (disambiguation)
* Provincial minister (disambiguation)
* Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...
legislature. 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
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
and the backbench
In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...
when the party is in government.
In such contexts, 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
The New Zealand Labour Party ( mi, Rōpū Reipa o Aotearoa), or simply Labour (), is a centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism, while observers descr ...
.
United Kingdom
Historic usage
The word "caucus" had a wide currency in the United Kingdom in the late 19th century, meaning a highly structured system of management and control within a political party, equivalent to a " party machine" in the United States. It was used with specific reference to the structure of the Liberal Party. Originally a pejorative term, used by detractors of the system with overtones of corrupt American practices, 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 Representation of the People Act 1867, 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102 (known as the Reform Act 1867 or the Second Reform Act) was a piece of British legislation that enfranchised part of the urban male working class in England and Wales for the first ...
, 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 William or Will or Willie Harris may refer to:
Politicians and political activists
*William Harris (born 1504) (1504–?), MP for Newport, Cornwall
* William Harris (died 1556), MP for Maldon
* William Harris (MP, died 1709) (c. 1652–1709), Engl ...
(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. 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.
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
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation o ...
. In 1880 Queen Victoria, following a meeting with Disraeli, wrote disapprovingly in a private note of "that American system called caucus". 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
The Labour Representation League (LRL), organised in November 1869, was a forerunner of the British Labour Party. Its original purpose was to register the working class to vote, and get workers into Parliament. It had limited power, described ...
and the Labour Electoral Association {{Short description, Political motive of the Labour Electoral Association
The Labour Electoral Association was a political organisation in the United Kingdom which aimed to get working men elected to Parliament.
Foundation
The issue of political re ...
, but found their way barred by the party's management structures.
Moisey Ostrogorsky
Moisey Yakovlevich Ostrogorsky (also Moisei Ostrogorsky; russian: Моисе́й Я́ковлевич Острого́рский, Moisey Yakovlevich Ostrogorskiy; be, Майсей Якаўлевiч Aстрaгорскi, Majsiej Jakaŭlievič Ast ...
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.
Contemporary usage
The word "caucus" is only occasionally encountered in contemporary politics in the British Isles. In contrast to other Anglosphere
The Anglosphere is a group of English-speaking world, English-speaking nations that share historical and cultural ties with England, and which today maintain close political, diplomatic and military co-operation. While the nations included in d ...
nations, it is never used for all members of a party in Parliament: the usual term for that concept, both in the UK and in the Republic of Ireland, is " parliamentary party".
On the rare occasions when the term is used, it generally refers to a subgroup, faction
Faction or factionalism may refer to:
Politics
* Political faction, a group of people with a common political purpose
* Free and Independent Faction, a Romanian political party
* Faction (''Planescape''), a political faction in the game ''Planes ...
or pressure group
Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the develop ...
within a political party. For example, in 2019 the One Nation Conservatives and Blue Collar Conservatives were established as factions within the Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
, both being described as "caucuses".
In organizations
In conventions
Convention may refer to:
* Convention (norm), a custom or tradition, a standard of presentation or conduct
** Treaty, an agreement in international law
* Convention (meeting), meeting of a (usually large) group of individuals and/or companies in a ...
, 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. Each caucus may decide how the group would vote on various issues that may come up at the convention. Unless the votes are made binding, however, each delegate is still free to vote in any fashion.
In alternative dispute resolution
The term ''caucus'' is also used in mediation
Mediation is a structured, interactive process where an impartial third party neutral assists disputing parties in resolving conflict through the use of specialized communication and negotiation techniques. All participants in mediation are ...
, facilitation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution
Alternative dispute resolution (ADR), or external dispute resolution (EDR), typically denotes a wide range of dispute resolution processes and techniques that parties can use to settle disputes with the help of a third party. They are used for ...
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. 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.[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]
See also
* Parliamentary group
* Party caucuses and conferences in the United States Congress
References
External links
COCaucus.org
*
{{Authority control
Types of organization
Political terminology