State Party Platforms and State Legislative Performance: A Comparative Analysis

1979 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard C. Elling
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
State Party ◽  
Party Platforms ◽  
Legislative Performance ◽  
State Legislative

scholarly journals The Development of State Legislative Campaign Committees: A Second Look

1994 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 213-234
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Shea
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
State Politics ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Exogenous Variable ◽  
State Party ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Party Decline ◽  
State Legislative ◽  
Rapid Emergence

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.

scholarly journals Intraparty and Interparty Variations of Issue Salience in Southern Parties

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 245-275
Author(s):  
Shannon L. Bridgmon
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Public Organizations ◽  
Issue Salience ◽  
Regional Politics ◽  
State Party ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Party Platforms ◽  
Southern States ◽  
Elected Office

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.

A Matter of Facts: State Legislative Performance Auditing

1974 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 318 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Brown ◽  
Ray D. Pethtel
Keyword(s):  
Legislative Performance ◽  
Performance Auditing ◽  
State Legislative

scholarly journals A Comparative Analysis of the Policy Development Function of State Party Organizations

1994 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 291-303
Author(s):  
Joel Paddock
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Elected Officials ◽  
State Party ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
Policy Alternatives ◽  
Party Activists ◽  
Democratic Parties

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.

Selection and Tenure of State Legislative Party Leaders: A Comparative Analysis

1972 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 1278-1286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Camp Chaffey ◽  
Malcolm E. Jewell
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
State Legislative

Polarization and the Nationalization of State Legislative Elections

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 1036-1054 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua N. Zingher ◽  
Jesse Richman
Keyword(s):  
National Level ◽  
Degree Of Polarization ◽  
National Party ◽  
State Party ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Relative Polarization ◽  
Party Positions ◽  
Develop Theory ◽  
State Legislative Elections ◽  
State Legislative

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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