Decaying Versus Developing Party Systems: A Comparison of Party Images in the United States and West Germany

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans-Dieter Klingemann ◽  
Martin P. Wattenberg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Party System ◽  
System Development ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Election Study ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Citizens Attitudes

This article examines citizens' attitudes towards the two major parties in the United States since 1952 and in West Germany since 1969 employing open-ended data from each country's National Election Study time series. Despite similar declining trends in party identification in the two countries, it is found that the patterns of change in party images are markedly different. In the United States it is shown that voters have become increasingly neutral towards the two parties as the focus has turned more and more towards the candidates. In contrast, in West Germany voters have come to have a more balanced view of the parties, seeing both positive and negative features of both. Thus in both cases there has been a decline in polarized strong partisanship (‘my party right or wrong’), but for different reasons. In the United States this decline can be seen as a sign of the decay of an ageing and outdated party system; in West Germany it can be seen as the development of realistic and balanced views of a party system which is just reaching full maturity. The implications for analysing party system development in Eastern Europe are discussed.

The Influence of Political Discussion on Policy Preference: A comparison of the United States and Japan

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
SEAN RICHEY ◽  
KEN'ICHI IKEDA
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Network ◽  
The United States ◽  
Network Size ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Policy Preference ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
Election Study ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Social Network Influence

This research tests if political discussion influences policy preference. The literature greatly stresses the non-rational nature of political decision-making. Rational policy preferences require learning specific details in a competitive political environment. Yet, research shows that most people do not have the skills to understand policy. Social networking is one way to help people understand policy. Social network influence on policy preferences, however, is mostly ignored. We show that the likelihood of supporting a policy increases when one's social network supports a party that advocates that policy. We control for the political knowledge of the respondent, network size, partisanship, ideology, socioeconomic, and policy-specific determinants. Examining data from the 2000 American National Election Study and Japanese Election Study 3, we find strong results in the United States, but mixed results in Japan. Additional research we perform shows a stronger social network influence in Japan.

The Formation of National Party Systems: Federalism and Party Competition in Canada, Great Britain, India, and the United States

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 1076-1077
Author(s):  
Radhika Desai
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Main Stream ◽  
National Party ◽  
Princeton University ◽  
Governmental Institutions

The Formation of National Party Systems: Federalism and Party Competition in Canada, Great Britain, India, and the United States, Pradeep K. Chhibber and Ken Kollman, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004, pp. xvi, 276.Mining electoral data to arrive at theories about the relationship between political party performance and party system determination and electoral and governmental institutions forms the main stream of political science. And one of its most enduring puzzles is the explanation of the patterns and diversities of party systems. With the famous “Duverger's Law” about single-member plurality systems and two-party political systems forming its point of departure, political scientists have attempted to substantiate their discipline's status as a “science” by producing theories about relationships between measurable political variables.

Immigrant Resentment and Voter Fraud Beliefs in the U.S. Electorate

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 402-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriano Udani ◽  
David C. Kimball
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Strong Predictor ◽  
The United States ◽  
Congressional Election ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Public Beliefs ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
American National Election Study ◽  
Immigration Politics ◽  
Voter Fraud

Public beliefs about the frequency of voter fraud are frequently cited to support restrictive voting laws in the United States. However, some sources of public beliefs about voter fraud have received little attention. We identify two conditions that combine to make anti-immigrant attitudes a strong predictor of voter fraud beliefs. First, the recent growth and dispersion of the immigrant population makes immigration a salient consideration for many Americans. Second, an immigrant threat narrative in political discourse linking immigration to crime and political dysfunction has been extended to the voting domain. Using new data from a survey module in the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study and the 2012 American National Election Study, we show that immigrant resentment is strongly associated with voter fraud beliefs. Widespread hostility toward immigrants helps nourish public beliefs about voter fraud and support for voting restrictions in the United States. The conditions generating this relationship in public opinion likely exist in other nations roiled by immigration politics. The topic of fraudulent electoral practices will likely continue to provoke voters to call to mind groups that are politically constructed as “un-American.”

The Cross-National Validity of Party Identification: Great Britain and the United States Compared

1981 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-375 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Mughan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Party Support ◽  
Cleavage Structure ◽  
Cross National

The question of party identification's cross-national validity revolves around the issue of whether or not it can be meaningfully distinguished from immediate voting preference in European national contexts. Comparing this relationship in the American and British party systems, however, this article demonstrates that the two forms of party support are behaviourally similar not in the case of national contexts, but of parties that are linked to the host society's cleavage structure. Moreover, it suggests that their behavioural similarity in the case of this type of party is a function of the ideological distance separating one from the other rather than of the two forms of party support tapping the same dimension of party loyalty. But, whatever the reason for the similarity, the conclusion cannot be avoided that party identification cannot serve the same range of powerful theoretical functions in Europe that it does in the United States because the former's party systems all reflect one or more long-standing, sometimes bitter, social divisions in the electorate.

The Gender Gap Is a Race Gap: Women Voters in US Presidential Elections

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 1135-1145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Junn ◽  
Natalie Masuoka
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
White Women ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
The United States ◽  
Election Study ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
American National Election Study

Scholarship on women voters in the United States has focused on the gender gap, showing that, since the 1980s, women are more likely to vote for Democratic Party candidates than men. The persistence of the gender gap has nurtured the conclusion that women are Democrats. This article presents evidence upending that conventional wisdom. It analyzes data from the American National Election Study to demonstrate that white women are the only group of female voters who support Republican Party candidates for president. They have done so by a majority in all but 2 of the last 18 elections. The relevance of race for partisan choice among women voters is estimated with data collected in 2008, 2012, and 2016, and the significance of being white is identified after accounting for political party identification and other predictors.

The Decline of Political Partisanship in the United States: Negativity or Neutrality?

1981 ◽  
Vol 75 (4) ◽  
pp. 941-950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin P. Wattenberg
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
The United States ◽  
Study Data ◽  
National Election ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Political Partisanship ◽  
National Election Study ◽  
Major Trend ◽  
Party Decline

This article examines attitudes towards the two major political parties in the United States from 1952 to 1980, using national election study data from open-ended likes/dislikes questions. The major trend which is found is a shift toward neutral evaluations of the parties. A reinterpretation of party decline in the electorate is offered, in which the much-discussed alienation from parties is largely rejected as an explanation. Rather, it is argued that the link between parties and candidates has been substantially weakened over the years and hence that political parties have become increasingly meaningless to the electorate.

scholarly journals The Nominating Process: Factionalism as a Force for Democratization

1991 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 42-64
Author(s):  
Ralph M. Goldman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Party System ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
National Politics ◽  
Popular Participation ◽  
Democratic Development

In what ways may a one-party system advance democratic development? Democratic development requires an understanding of the process of institutionalization and the ways in which institutionalization may be promotive of nonviolent elite competition, even within one-party systems. This directs our attention to the hierarchy of institutionalized organizations and conflict systems that constitute a party system, namely, government, parties, and factions. Although neglected in research on party politics, factions are capable of creating conditions favorable to democratic development, including nonviolent competition among elites, party pluralism, and popular participation in electoral and other institutions of national politics. The centerpiece of factionalism is the party’s nominating process, another relatively neglected subject of inquiry. Several principles of institutionalization are suggested by the experience with factionalism in the United States and other nations.

Bipartisanship as Possible Alternative of Russian Political System Evolution

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 256-265
Author(s):  
Konstantin V. Simonov ◽  
Stanislav P. Mitrakhovich
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
The United States ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Complex Structures ◽  
Practical Advice ◽  
Simultaneous Separation

The article examines the possibility of transfer to bipartisan system in Russia. The authors assess the benefits of the two-party system that include first of all the ensuring of actual political competition and authority alternativeness with simultaneous separation of minute non-system forces that may contribute to the country destabilization. The authors analyze the accompanying risks and show that the concept of the two-party system as the catalyst of elite schism is mostly exaggerated. The authors pay separate attention to the experience of bipartisan system implementation in other countries, including the United States. They offer detailed analysis of the generated concept of the bipartisanship crisis and show that this point of view doesn’t quite agree with the current political practice. The authors also examine the foreign experience of the single-party system. They show that the success of the said system is mostly insubstantial, besides many of such systems have altered into more complex structures, while commentators very often use not the actual information but the established myths about this or that country. The authors also offer practical advice regarding the potential technologies of transition to the bipartisan system in Russia.

Electoral Systems in Context

2017 ◽  
pp. 720-740
Author(s):  
Steven L. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Party Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Elections ◽  
Unique Element ◽  
Unique System ◽  
The World ◽  
Elected Office

The United States of America has one of the longest, continually functional electoral systems in the world. On one level, the system is seemingly simple, as it is based predominantly on plurality winners in the context of single-seat districts. However, its extensive usage of primary elections adds a nearly unique element to the process of filling elected office. This mechanism is used more extensively in the United States than in any other case. Additionally, the United States has a complex, and unique, system for electing its national executive. All of these factors help create and reinforce one of the most rigid two-party systems in the world.

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