Voter Coordination and the Rise of the Republican Party: Evidence from New England

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 311-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Chamberlain
Keyword(s):  
New England ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Political History ◽  
Strategic Voting ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Party Development ◽  
Party Voting ◽  
American Party

The development of the Republican Party is a significant event in American political history. While scholars describe its formation as a realignment caused by the slavery issue, this article reinterprets this perspective. Focusing on gubernatorial elections in New England from 1840 to the mid-1850s, I present evidence that the rise of the Republican Party in the region was due to a lack of strategic voting coupled with third-party, antislavery voting that did not consistently affect the Whigs across states. A counterfactual argument suggests that Whig elites would have sought to change the nature of party politics and, had the distribution of third-party voting affected the Whigs similarly across states, then the Republicans may not have formed. Thus, the distribution of antislavery, third-party voting was more important than the presence of antislavery sentiment. This finding is important for understanding American party development and how strategic voting fits into the study of US elections.

Getting Partisan

2020 ◽  
pp. 181-218
Author(s):  
Adam Slez
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Third Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Field ◽  
People's Party ◽  
To Come ◽  
Over Time

This chapter traces the rise and fall of electoral Populism in southern Dakota. It begins by examining the transformation of the political field in Dakota Territory, where politics was traditionally organized around the fight for patronage. Excluded from power by the dominant faction of the Republican Party, the leaders of the Farmers’ Alliance turned to third-party politics as a means of waging war on their more elite rivals. I show that support for Populist candidates was closely with Alliance strength, though this relationship weakened over time as the People’s Party took on a life of its own. Major victories were hard to come by in the absence of electoral fusion. The free silver question served as a rallying point for pro-fusion forces, which succeeded in taking power. Unable to manage the distribution of patronage, the fusionist coalition quickly collapsed, taking what was left of the Populist movement with it.

Contentious Institutions and Party Orders in American Politics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Hejny ◽  
Adam Hilton
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Party Development ◽  
State And Society ◽  
American Party ◽  
Over Time

What are political parties, and how and why do they change? These questions are foundational to party research, yet scholars of American parties disagree about the answers. In this paper we present a new theoretical framework capable of bridging these scholarly divides and coming to terms with American party politics today. We argue that political parties should be seen as fundamentally contentious institutions. Due to their mediating position between state and society, parties are subject to rival claims of authority from a range of political actors, including elected officeholders, party officials, interest groups, and social movements. To manage intraparty contention, win elections, and govern, entrepreneurs construct and maintain party orders -- institutional and ideational arrangements that foster an operational degree of cohesion and constraint through time. Together, the dynamics of intraparty contention and the rise and fall of distinct party orders over time illuminate the patterns of American party development.

scholarly journals The Influence of Ron Paul: Loud Bang or Flash in the Pan?

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-38
Author(s):  
Mark T. Kozlowski
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Recent Memory ◽  
National Convention

The 2012 primary season has been one of the most volatile in recent memory, with the Republican Party struggling to settle on a candidate. The campaign has also vaulted some previously obscure politicians to national prominence, only to relegate them again to obscurity. Ron Paul has demonstrated perhaps the most dramatic transformation, from a lone voice who was once largely ignored to one of the last four candidates for the nomination, who has performed quite creditably in several primaries. In this article, I examine how much influence Paul is going to have in the short term, up to and including the Republican National Convention. I also examine how lasting his influence will be over the long term, and whether or not he will mount a third-party bid in 2012.

Growing Tea With Subnational Roots: Tea Party Affiliation, Factionalism, and GOP Politics in State Legislatures

2021 ◽  
pp. 1532673X2110411
Author(s):  
Stella M. Rouse ◽  
Charles Hunt ◽  
Kristen Essel
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
State Level ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Original Dataset

Most research has examined the influence of the Tea Party as a social movement or loose organization, but less is known about its influence within legislative party politics, especially at the state level. In this paper, we argue that in this context the Tea Party is primarily an intraparty faction that has caused significant divisions inside the Republican Party. Using an original dataset of legislators across 13 states for the years 2010 to 2013, we examine legislator and district-level characteristics that predict state legislators’ affiliation with the Tea Party. Our results reveal that in some respects legislators affiliated with the Tea Party are a far-right wing of the Republican Party. However, by other measures that capture anti-establishment political sentiment, Tea Party affiliated legislators comprise a factional group attempting to transform the Party in ways that go beyond ideology. These findings have important implications for the future prospects of the GOP.

The Free Soilers: Third Party Politics, 1848-1854 (review)

1974 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-65
Author(s):  
C. F. VanDeventer
Keyword(s):  
Party Politics ◽  
Third Party

Paternalism and the Birth of Professional Police Organization

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Mitrani
Keyword(s):  
Law Enforcement ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Daily Activity ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Law And Order ◽  
Police Organization ◽  
Chicago Police Department ◽  
Chicago Police

This chapter examines how the Chicago Police Department evolved into a professional police organization based on the ideology of paternalism. The election of Thomas Dyer as mayor in 1856 started a five-year period of contestation over the basic shape of the new police force. On the surface, this fight pitted law-and-order Republicans against Democratic supporters of immigrants and looser law enforcement. But party politics tells only a fraction of the story. The underlying dispute was between two conflicting visions of the police, each of which had supporters particularly within the Republican Party. Some members of both parties, most notably Dyer, a Democratic, and Republican Mayor John Wentworth, sought to fit the police into the older paternalistic method of keeping order. This chapter considers how the Chicago police came to occupy a central place in city machine politics and discusses Wentworth's organizational police policies that were consistent with his broader paternalistic vision of the institution. It also describes the police's daily activity between 1855 and 1862, including dealing with the problems arising from the Civil War.

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