Comment: Problems Analyzing Congress, Chronological Age, and Critical Elections

Authors

  • Charles D. Hadley

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15763/issn.2374-7781.1993.14.0.119-121

Abstract

The above analysis by Whicker and Jewell suffers, in part, because the authors bring an extensive and very diverse literature-elections, economics, and congressional studies-to bear on the phenomenon of partisan change among congresses measured by various manipulations of the age of members of congress. While “critical elections” (Key 1955) denote periods of sharp partisan change, the authors use this terminology interchangeably with “realigning elections” (e.g., Key 1959; Chambers & Burnham 1967, 1975; Burnham 1969, 1970), even though control of the political system (in this case, congress) does not shift from one political party to another. Pomper (1967), in fact, contributed an important distinction between two types of critical elections: realigning elections, in which political control shifts from one major political party to the other, and converting elections, in which political control remains with the same political party, but derives from a different base of voter support. Taken together, realignments followed by conversions where the same political party maintains political dominance define broader sociopolitical periods tied to economic change-periods classified as the rural republic, industrializing nation, and industrial state (Ladd 1970). Whicker and Jewell”s analysis, then, calls for consistency in the terminology describing elections.

References

Brady, David W. 1988. Critical Elections and Congressional Policy-Making. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Burnham, Walter Dean. 1969. The End of American Party Politics. Transaction 7: 12-22.

__________. 1970. Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics. New York: W.W. Norton.

Chambers, William Nisbet and Walter Dean Burnham, eds. 1975. The American Party Systems: Stages of Political Development, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Diamond, Robert A. and Patricia Ann O?Connor, eds. 1976. Guide to Congress, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc.

Gates, John B. 1987. Partisan Realignment, Unconstitutional State Policies, and the U.S. Supreme Court, 1837-1964. American Journal of Political Science 31: 259-280.

Key, V.O. Jr. 1955. A Theory of Critical Elections. Journal of Politics 17: 3-18.

__________. 1959. Secular Realignment and the Party System. Journal of Politics 21: 198-210.

Ladd, Everett Carll. 1970. American Political Parties: Social Change and Political Response. New York: W.W. Norton.

Pomper, Gerald M. 1967. Classification of Presidential Elections. Journal of Politics 29: 535-566.

Seligman, Lester G. and Michael R. King. 1980. Political Realignments and Recruitment to the U.S. Congress, 1879-1970. In Bruce A. Campbell and Richard J. Trilling, eds., Realignment in American Politics. Austin: University of Texas Press.

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Published

1993-04-01

Issue

Vol. 14: Spring 1993

Section

Articles

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