Party Realignment and State Politics - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814205747 ISBN 13: 9780814205747

Publisher: Ohio State University Press, 1992

Synopsis

This collection of original articles examines change in voter party identification and its impact on state politics in 14 states representing every region of the USA. Party realignment - a gradual shift from Democrats to Republicans - has been most noticeable in presidential elections and in the shift to a Republican-controlled Senate in Ronald Reagan's first term. This volume considers the autonomous parties within each state as a way of studying transformations in the party system. Each state study uses comparable data and similar measurements to consider four major factors in party realignment: political and social indicators, including long-term economic and demographic changes; trends in party identification, with a summary of the general shifts in partisan attachments of ideological orientations of voters over at least a ten-year period; electoral trends, including a summary of presidential, congressional, legislative, and local results; and politics and power, with an emphasis on the impact of partisan and electoral developments on party realignment. Among other conclusions, these studies of realignment patterns within states suggest that, while regional trends emerge, demographic and economic factors within states are more important than national issues and candidate personalities.

Edition details

• Publisher: Ohio State University Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814205747
• ISBN 13: 9780814205747
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320
• Editor: Moakley Maureen