Republican Party-Building and Anti-Tax Policies

AbstractSince the 2016 election, President Trump has achieved unparalleled dominance over the Republican Party. He has also given his party a central role in his reelection campaign and invested heavily in its organizational capacities. This dual approach to party leadership – domination paired with organizational investment – bears a strong resemblance to the way every Republican president since Eisenhower interacted with his party, different only in degree. Where Trump’s party leadership diverges qualitatively from past patterns is in its apparent purposes. Previous Republican presidents dominated and invested in their party for the explicit purpose of building a new majority in American politics. Reaching out to new demographic groups and trying to persuade them to join the party was integral to this project. Trump, in contrast, has (thus far) predominantly pursued a base-mobilization strategy. Rather than fan out horizontally in search of new groups to join the party coalition, Trump’s strategy drills down vertically to penetrate and deepen his base. Instead of trying to diversify the GOP and extend its reach, his strategy aims to swell the number of like-minded supporters who are active in electoral and party politics (while suppressing, demobilizing, and delegitimizing the opposition party). By setting into motion a mutually reinforcing cycle of party domination and base mobilization, and amplifying its effects through organizational investment, Trump has turned his party into a formidable vehicle for advancing his personal purposes and augmenting his power – while raising troubling questions about the stability of American democracy. This article examines Trump’s party leadership to date, compares it to previous presidential party leadership projects, and considers the implications.

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The Reed Rules and Republican Party Building: A New Look

Studies in American Political Development ◽

10.1017/s0898588x09990022 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 23 (2) ◽

pp. 115-142 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Richard M. Valelly

Keyword(s):

Republican Party ◽

Party System ◽

Gilded Age ◽

Internal Governance ◽

Federal Election ◽

Party Building ◽

Congressional Development ◽

New Look

The making of the Reed Rules – the source of today's U.S. House procedure – has often been studied, yet no one has previously noticed the extent to which they originated in a today forgotten Republican plan to federally regulate Southern House elections. This article shows how and why the Reed Rules and federal election regulation became fused in the 51st Congress. Republican members of the House not only had preferences over the internal governance of the House; they also simultaneously had preferences over the structure of the party system. In following this article's analysis of the linkage between the Reed Rules and the strategy of party conflict in the Gilded Age one comes to better appreciate the role of party building as a source of congressional development.

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Democrats and Whigs

The Oxford Handbook of American Political History ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199341788.013.2 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 61-78

Author(s):

Harry L. Watson

Keyword(s):

Republican Party ◽

Party System ◽

The United States ◽

Indian Removal ◽

Party Organization ◽

American System ◽

Party Building ◽

Democratic Parties ◽

American Party ◽

Sectional Conflict

The rivalry between the Whig and Democratic Parties, often called the “Second American Party System,” first emerged in Andrew Jackson’s administration (1829–1837). Democrats organized to secure Jackson’s 1828 election, then united behind his program of Indian removal, no federal funding of internal improvements, opposition to the Bank of the United States, defense of slavery, and the “spoils system” that used patronage for party building. Whigs supported Henry Clay’s pro-development American System, sympathized with evangelical reform, and reluctantly accepted Democratic techniques for popular mobilization and party organization. The mature parties competed closely in most states and briefly eased sectional conflict, before splitting in the 1850s over slavery in the territories. Whigs made no presidential nomination in 1856, and the Second Party System disintegrated. As it did, Northern Whigs and antislavery Democrats merged in the Republican Party, southern Whiggery steeply declined, and Democrats survived as the only national party.

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The 1982 Voting Rights Act Extension as a “Critical Juncture”: Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, and Republican Party-Building

Studies in American Political Development ◽

10.1017/s0898588x21000079 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-16

Author(s):

Richard Johnson

Keyword(s):

Republican Party ◽

Reagan Administration ◽

Voting Rights ◽

Ronald Reagan ◽

Voting Rights Act ◽

Party Building ◽

Critical Junctures ◽

Bob Dole ◽

Racial Policy ◽

Political Entrepreneurs

Abstract Republican support for the 1982 Voting Rights Act (VRA) extension is a puzzle for scholars of racial policy coalitions. The extension contained provisions that were manifestly antithetical to core principles of the “color-blind” policy alliance said to dominate the GOP. Recent scholarship has explained this puzzling decision by arguing that conservatives were confident that the VRA's most objectionable provisions could be undone by the federal bureaucracy and judiciary, while absolving Republicans of the blame of being against voting rights. This article suggests that the picture is more complicated. Applying the concept of “critical junctures” to the 1982 VRA extension, the article highlights the importance of actors’ contingent decisions and reveals a wider range of choices available to political entrepreneurs than has been conventionally understood. Highlighting differing views within the Reagan administration, this article also identifies a wider range of reasons why Republicans supported the act's extension, including career ambition, party-building, policy agenda advancement, and genuine commitment, rather than simply a defensive stance as implied by recent histories.

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Route to '66: Ray Bliss, the 1966 Election and the Development of the Republican Service Party

American Review of Politics ◽

10.15763/issn.2374-7781.2010.31.0.67-89 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 31 ◽

pp. 67-89

Author(s):

Brian Conley

Keyword(s):

Staff Training ◽

Republican Party ◽

Critical Role ◽

Professional Service ◽

Party Organization ◽

Organizational Changes ◽

Party Building ◽

Building Process ◽

Over Time

The pace of the Republican Party’s recovery after Goldwater’s 1964 loss, highlighted by the party’s competitiveness in the 1966 elections, has raised a number of questions about how the party was able to reorganize and rebuild so rapidly. What was the nature of the organizational changes introduced at the RNC after the 1964 loss? Moreover, what effect did such changes have on t party’s he long-term development of the modern Republican Party? By examining the party-building process that followed the defeat, particularly in the areas staff training, message development and fundraising, I seek to illustrate how a new, more centralized and professional service approach to party organization, pioneered by RNC Chair Ray Bliss, played a critical role in the party’s rapid recovery, as well as its organizational viability over time.

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The Four Faces of the Republican Party

10.1057/9781137577535 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Henry Olsen ◽

Dante J. Scala

Keyword(s):

Republican Party

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Economic Effects of 2004-2009 Tax Reforms: Retrospective Analysis

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2012-2-108-123 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 108-123

Author(s):

E. Penukhina ◽

D. Belousov ◽

K. Mikhailenko

Keyword(s):

Retrospective Analysis ◽

Tax Policy ◽

Economic Effects ◽

Tax Policies ◽

Policy Changes ◽

Tax Reforms ◽

Russian Economy ◽

Balanced Budget ◽

Budget System

The article determines, describes and analyzes phases of tax reforms in Russia. We estimate macroeconomic and fiscal effects of various tax policies held during the second and third phases of tax reforms. The necessity of providing a balanced budget system, as well as complex assessment of effects of tax policy changes for the development of the Russian economy is noted.

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Party Building in Upper Burma

Asian Survey ◽

10.1525/as.1963.3.4.01p1625e ◽

1963 ◽

Vol 3 (4) ◽

pp. 197-202 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Manning Nash

Keyword(s):

Party Building

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White Backlash

10.23943/princeton/9780691164434.001.0001 ◽

2015 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Marisa Abrajano ◽

Zoltan L. Hajnal

Keyword(s):

Ethnic Diversity ◽

Republican Party ◽

Large Scale ◽

White Americans ◽

Political Beliefs ◽

White Backlash ◽

Political Spectrum ◽

Racial Divide ◽

The Right ◽

Political Backlash

This book provides an authoritative assessment of how immigration is reshaping American politics. Using an array of data and analysis, it shows that fears about immigration fundamentally influence white Americans' core political identities, policy preferences, and electoral choices, and that these concerns are at the heart of a large-scale defection of whites from the Democratic to the Republican Party. The book demonstrates that this political backlash has disquieting implications for the future of race relations in America. White Americans' concerns about Latinos and immigration have led to support for policies that are less generous and more punitive and that conflict with the preferences of much of the immigrant population. America's growing racial and ethnic diversity is leading to a greater racial divide in politics. As whites move to the right of the political spectrum, racial and ethnic minorities generally support the left. Racial divisions in partisanship and voting, as the book indicates, now outweigh divisions by class, age, gender, and other demographic measures. The book raises critical questions and concerns about how political beliefs and future elections will change the fate of America's immigrants and minorities, and their relationship with the rest of the nation.

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The Politics of Evangelical Identity

10.23943/princeton/9780691161303.001.0001 ◽

2014 ◽

Author(s):

Lydia Bean

Keyword(s):

Republican Party ◽

Religious Practice ◽

Religious Language ◽

Evangelical Christianity ◽

Conservative Politics ◽

Evangelical Churches ◽

Political Conservatism ◽

Evangelical Identity ◽

Moral Attitudes ◽

The U.S

It is now a common refrain among liberals that Christian Right pastors and television pundits have hijacked evangelical Christianity for partisan gain. This book challenges this notion, arguing that the hijacking metaphor paints a fundamentally distorted picture of how evangelical churches have become politicized. The book reveals how the powerful coalition between evangelicals and the Republican Party is not merely a creation of political elites who have framed conservative issues in religious language, but is anchored in the lives of local congregations. Drawing on research at evangelical churches near the U.S. border with Canada, this book compares how American and Canadian evangelicals talk about politics in congregational settings. While Canadian evangelicals share the same theology and conservative moral attitudes as their American counterparts, their politics are quite different. On the U.S. side of the border, political conservatism is woven into the very fabric of everyday religious practice. The book shows how subtle partisan cues emerge in small group interactions as members define how “we Christians” should relate to others in the broader civic arena, while liberals are cast in the role of adversaries. It explains how the most explicit partisan cues come not from clergy but rather from lay opinion leaders who help their less politically engaged peers to link evangelical identity to conservative politics. This book demonstrates how deep the ties remain between political conservatism and evangelical Christianity in America.

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