State Party Platforms and State Legislative Performance: A Comparative Analysis

1979 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard C. Elling
1994 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 213-234
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Shea

One of the most important recent developments in state politics has been the rapid emergence of legislative campaign committees (LCCs), now found in 40 states. A persistent theme in the literature is that the growth of these new organizations has been directly linked to party decline. More specifically, as traditional party organizations failed to respond to changing environmental conditions. LCCs were created. The analysis presented here rejects the functionalist perspective and argues that their development has occurred independent of party dynamics, and perhaps as a response to strengthening state party committees. Legislative professionalization is found to be the most telling exogenous variable, suggesting a good deal about LCC activities and goals. Contrary to expectations, these powerful organizations may not be interested in or capable of performing many of the functions historically undertaken by traditional party organizations.


2010 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 245-275
Author(s):  
Shannon L. Bridgmon

Political parties have many purposes, but their primary goal is to capture elected office (Aldrich 1995). They also serve as quasi-public organizations that mobilize the electorate and organize political debate. Previous research (Budge and Farlie 1977, 1983; Petrocik 1981, 1996) suggests that parties will emphasize issues that provide them an electoral or policy advantage. However, little exists to determine if this pattern extends to state and regional politics. This study measures the levels of importance southern political parties attach to various issues, as expressed through each state party’s platform. State party platforms of southern states in effect during 2009 will serve as the data for this study. After determining levels of issue salience variations among and within southern states, this study confirms that parties emphasize issues to maximize electoral prospects.


1974 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Brown ◽  
Ray D. Pethtel

1994 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 291-303
Author(s):  
Joel Paddock

Platforms provide a guide to a party's ideological location at a particular time. As such, they can be a useful tool for comparing interparty and intraparty differences over policy alternatives at the subnational level. This analysis of the recent platforms of 40 state Democratic parties and 34 state Republican parties, patterned after Ginsberg’s (1972. 1976) framework, revealed considerable ideological decentralization (across-state intraparty differences) within both parties. Further analysis of platform contents in relationship to Erikson. Wright, and Mclver's (1993) research revealed weak correlations between the ideological content of platforms and the ideological orientations of state electorates, state elected officials, state party activists, and party identifiers, respectively.


1972 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 1278-1286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Camp Chaffey ◽  
Malcolm E. Jewell

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 1036-1054 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua N. Zingher ◽  
Jesse Richman

The electoral fortunes of state parties are partly shaped by the positions adopted by national parties. This creates the potential dilemma: The position that is best for the national party might be too extreme for the electorate in some states. Some state parties attempt to address this problem by adopting more moderate positions than their national-level counterparts. We argue that the efficacy of state party moderation hinges on the degree of polarization at the national level. We develop theory and examine empirical evidence that higher relative polarization at the national level exacerbates the degree to which national party positions and loyalties determine outcomes in U.S. state elections. When relative national polarization is high, we find evidence that state legislative election outcomes are determined by states’ orientations toward the national parties rather than the positions taken by state legislative parties.


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