The Impact of State Party Elite Ideology

Authors

  • Gerald C. Wright
  • Robert S. Erikson
  • John P. McIver

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2374-7781.1994.15.0.304-327

Abstract

This study looks at the impact of state party elite ideology in American state politics. Drawing on the spatial theory of Anthony Downs, we develop hypotheses first to explain the non-convergence of candidates. Party elites are ideologically distinct, influential and strongly policy motivated. They are a force pulling candidates away from the average voter in varying degrees across the states. Second, elites influence public policy. Although the single greatest influence on the general liberalism- conservatism of state policy is public opinion, the ideological tendencies of the party elites have an important added impact. Finally, we examine the long-term impact of party elite ideology on state partisanship. We find that ideological extremism loses party identifiers; across the states, the ideological tendencies of party elites, relative to public opinion, is an important influence on state partisanship. Party elites, particularly the policy motivated activists, are an important force shaping politics in the states.

References

Abramowitz, Alan I. 1980. A Comparison of Voting for U. S. Senator and Representative in 1978. American Political Science Review 74: 633-640. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1958146

___________. John McGlennon, and Ronald B. Rapoport. 1986a. An Analysis of State Party Activists. In Ronald B. Rapoport, Alan I. Abramowitz, and John McGlennon, eds., The Life of the Parties: Activists in Presidential Politics. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.

___________. 1986b. Incentives for Activism. In Ronald B. Rapoport, Alan I. Abramowitz, and John McGlennon, eds., The Life o f the Parties: Activists in Presidential Politics. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.

Aldrich, John H. 1983. A Spatial Model with Party Activists: Implications for Electoral Dynamics. Public Choice 41: 63-100. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00124050

___________and Michael D. McGinnis. 1989. A Model of Party Constraints on Optimal Candidate Positions. Public Choice 12: 437-50.

Aranson, Peter H., and Peter C. Ordeshook. 1972. Spatial Strategies for Sequential Elections. In Richard G. Niemi and Herbert F. Weisberg, eds., Probability Models of Collective Decision Making. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill Co.

Boles, Janet K. 1979. The Politics o f the Equal Rights Amendment. New York: Longman.

Browning, Robert X., and William R. Shaffer. 1987. Leaders and Followers in a Strong Party State. American Politics Quarterly 15: 87-106. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1532673X8701500103

Campbell. Angus, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller and Donald E. Stokes. 1960. The American Voter. New York: Wiley.

Carmines, Edward G., John P. Mclver, and James A. Stimson. 1987. Unrealized Partisanship: A Theory of Dealignment. Journal of Politics 49: 376-400. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2131306

Coleman, James S. 1972. The Positions of Political Parties in Elections. In Richard G. Niemi and Herbert F. Weisberg, eds., Probability Models of Collective Decision Making. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill Co.

Committee on Political Parties of the American Political Science Association. 1950. Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System. American Political Science Review 44: Supplement.

Cotter, Cornelius P., James L. Gibson, John F. Bibby, and Robert J. Huckshorn. 1984. Party Organizations in American Politics. New York: Praeger.

Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper.

Dye, Thomas R. 1966. Politics, Economics, and the Public: Political Outcomes in the American States. Chicago: Rand McNally.

___________ . 1984. Party and Policy in the States. Journal o f Politics 46: 1097-1116.

Calvert, Randall L. 1985. Robustness of the Multidimensional Voting Model: Candidate Motivations, Uncertainty, and Convergence. American Journal of Political Science 29: 69-95. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2111212

Erikson, Robert S., and Gerald C. Wright. 1993. Voters, Issues and Candidates in Congressional Elections. In Lawrence Dodd and Bruce Oppenheimer, eds., Congress Reconsidered, fifth ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.

Erikson, Robert S., Gerald C. Wright, and John P. Mclver. 1993. Statehouse Democracy: Public Opinion and Policy in the American States. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Fenton, John H. 1966. Midwest Politics. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Finkel, Steven E., and Howard A. Scarrow. 1985. Party Identification and Party Enrollment: The Difference and Consequence. Journal of Politics 47: 620-42. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2130899

Fiorina. Morris P. 1981. Retrospective Voting in American National Elections. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Franklin. Charles H. 1984. Issue Preferences. Socialization, and the Evolution of Party Identification. American Journal of Political Science 28: 459-78. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2110900

___________ and John E. Jackson. 1983. The Dynamics of Party Identification. American Political Science Review 77: 957-73. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1957569

Garand. James C. 1985. Partisan Change and Shifting Expenditure Priorities in the American States, 1945-1978. American Politics Quarterly 13: 355-391. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1532673X8501300401

Grofman, Bernard. Robert Griffen. and Amihai Glazer. 1990. Identical Geography, Different Party: A Natural Experiment on the Magnitude of Party Differences in the U.S. Senate, 1960-84. In R.J. Johnson, F.M. Shelley, and P.J. Taylor, eds.. Developments in Electoral Geography. London: Routledge.

Hanson, Russell L. 1983. The 'Content' of Welfare Policy: The State and Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Journal of Politics 45: 771-785. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2130717

___________ . 1984. Medicaid and the Politics of Redistribution. American Journal of Political Science 28: 313-339. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2110875

Jennings, Edward. 1979. Competition, Constituencies, and Welfare Policies in the American States. American Political Science Review 73: 414-429. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1954888

Jewell, Malcolm E., and David M. Olson. 1988. American State Political Parties and Elections, third ed. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press.

Key, V.O., Jr. 1961. Public Opinion and American Democracy. New York: Knopf.

Lowery, David. 1985. The Keynesian and Political Determinants of Unbalanced Budgets: U.S. Fiscal Policy from Eisenhower to Reagan. American Journal o f Political Science 29: 428-460.

Luskin, Robert C., John P. Mclver, and Edward G. Carmines. 1989. Issues and the Transmission of Partisanship. American Journal o f Political Science 33: 440-58.

MacKuen. Michael B., Robert S. Erikson, and James A. Stimson. 1989. Macropartisanship. American Political Science Review 83: 1125-1142. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1961661

McClosky, Herbert, Paul J. Hoffman, and Rosemary O'Hara. 1960. Issue Conflict and Consensus Among Party Leaders and Followers. American Political Science Review 54: 406-427. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1978302

Miller, Warren E. 1988. Without Consent: Mass-Elite Linkages in Presidential Politics. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.

___________ and M. Kent Jennings. 1986. Parties in Transition: A Longitudinal Study of Party Elitesand Party Supporters. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Morton, Rebecca B. 1993. Incomplete Information and Ideological Explanations of Platform Divergence. American Political Science Review SI: 382-392.

Norrander, Barbara. 1989. Explaining Cross-State Variation in Independent Identification. American Journal of Political Science 33: 516-36. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2111158

Olson, Mancur, Jr. 1971. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Page, Benjamin I., and Calvin Jones. 1979. Reciprocal Effects of Policy Preferences, Party Loyalties and the Vote. American Political Science Review 73: 1071-89. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1953990

Patterson, Samuel C., and Gregory A. Caldeira. 1983. Getting Out the Vote: Participation in Gubernatorial Elections. American Political Science Review 77: 675-89. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1957267

Phares, Donald. 1980. Who Pays State and Local Taxes? Cambridge, MA: Oelgeschalager, Gunn, and Hain.

Plotnick, Robert D., and Richard F. Winters. 1985. A Politicoeconomic Theory of Income Redistribution. American Political Science Review 79: 458-73. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1956660

Poole, Keith T., and Howard Rosenthal. 1984. The Polarization of American Politics. Journal of Politics 46: 1061-1079. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2131242

Ranney. Austin. 1971. Parties in State Politics. In Herbert Jacob and Kenneth Vines, eds.. Politics in the American States. Boston: Little, Brown.

___________ . 1976. Parties in State Politics. In Herbert Jacob and Kenneth Vines, eds., Politics in the American States, third ed. Boston: Little, Brown.

Schattschneider, E.E. 1942. Party Government. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Shapiro. Catherine R., David W. Brady, Richard A. Brody, and John A. Ferejohn. 1990. Linking Constituency Opinion and Senate Voting Scores: A Hybrid Explanation. Legislative Studies Quarterly 15: 599-622.

Sigelman, Lee, and Roland Smith. 1980. Consumer Legislation in the American State: An Attempt at Explanation. Social Science Quarterly 61: 58-70.

Sullivan, John L., and Robert E. O'Connor. 1972. Electoral Choice and Popular Control of Public Policy. American Political Science Review 66: 1256-68. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1957178

Uslaner. Eric M., and Ronald E. Weber. 1977. Patterns o f Decision Making in State Legislatures. New York: Praeger.

Winters. Richard. 1976. Party Control and Policy Change. American Journal of Political Science 20: 597-636.

Wright, Gerald C. 1986. Elections and the Potential for Policy Change in Congress. In Gerald C. Wright, Leroy Rieselbach, and Lawrence C. Dodd, eds., Congress and Policy Change. New York: Agathon Press.

___________ . 1994. The Meaning of 'Party' in Congressional Roll Call Voting. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL.

___________ and Michael B. Berkman. 1986. Candidates and Policy in U.S. Senatorial Selections. American Political Science Review 80: 576-90.

Downloads

Published

1994-07-01

Issue

Vol. 15: Summer 1994

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with American Review of Politics agree to the following terms:

  1. The Author retains copyright in the Work, where the term “Work” shall include all digital objects that may result in subsequent electronic publication or distribution.

  2. Upon acceptance of the Work, the author shall grant to the Publisher the right of first publication of the Work.

  3. The Author shall grant to the Publisher and its agents the nonexclusive perpetual right and license to publish, archive, and make accessible the Work in whole or in part in all forms of media now or hereafter known under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License or its equivalent, which, for the avoidance of doubt, allows others to copy, distribute, and transmit the Work under the following conditions:

    1. Attribution: other users must attribute the Work in the manner specified by the author as indicated on the journal Web site;

    2. Non-Commercial: the materials may not be used for commercial purposes;

    3. Share Alike: If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

with the understanding that the above condition can be waived with permission from the Author and that where the Work or any of its elements is in the public domain under applicable law, that status is in no way affected by the license.

  1. The Author is able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the nonexclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the Work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), as long as there is provided in the document an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

  2. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post online a pre-publication manuscript (but not the Publisher’s final formatted PDF version of the Work) in institutional repositories or on their Websites prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access). Any such posting made before acceptance and publication of the Work shall be updated upon publication to include a reference to the Publisher-assigned DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and a link to the online abstract for the final published Work in the Journal.

  3. Upon Publisher’s request, the Author agrees to furnish promptly to Publisher, at the Author’s own expense, written evidence of the permissions, licenses, and consents for use of third-party material included within the Work, except as determined by Publisher to be covered by the principles of Fair Use.

  1. The Author represents and warrants that:

    1. the Work is the Author’s original work;

    2. the Author has not transferred, and will not transfer, exclusive rights in the Work to any third party;

    3. the Work is not pending review or under consideration by another publisher;

    4. the Work has not previously been published;

    5. the Work contains no misrepresentation or infringement of the Work or property of other authors or third parties; and

    6. the Work contains no libel, invasion of privacy, or other unlawful matter.

  2. The Author agrees to indemnify and hold Publisher harmless from Author’s breach of the representations and warranties contained in Paragraph 6 above, as well as any claim or proceeding relating to Publisher’s use and publication of any content contained in the Work, including third-party content.