Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-04T23:39:19.366Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Issue Evolution, Population Replacement, and Normal Partisan Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Edward G. Carmines  and
James A. Stimson
Edward G. Carmines
Affiliation:
Indiana University
James A. Stimson
Affiliation:
Florida State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Students of American political behavior have usually turned to “critical election” realignment theories to explain the dynamics of long-term change in the party system. These theories are problematic on both theoretical and empirical grounds. A theory that can account for change within the context of a stable electoral system is required. We propose a theory of issue evolution that explains normal partisan change, and illustrate the theory by examining the impact of racial issues on party identification. The theory looks to the evolution of new issues as the stimulus of partisan change and to the continuous replacement of the electorate as the mechanism through which such change is effected. In a comparison of three theoretical models of issue evolution, we conclude that racial desegregation has provoked a subtle but permanent change in the recruitment of new members of political parties.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 75 , Issue 1 , March 1981 , pp. 107 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1981 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achen, Christopher H. (1975). “Mass Political Attitudes and the Survey Response.” American Political Science Review 69: 1218–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, Kristi (1976). “Generation, Partisan Shift and Realignment: A Glance Back to the New Deal.” In Nie, Norman H., Verba, Sidney and Petrocik, John R.. The Changing American Voter. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Andersen, Kristi (1979). The Creation of a Democratic Majority, 1928–1936. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Beck, Paul Allen (1974). “A Socialization Theory of Partisan Realignment.” In Niemi, Richard G. (ed.), The Politics of Future Citizens. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Beck, Paul Allen (1977). “Partisan Realignment in the Postwar South.” American Political Science Review 71: 477–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bishop, George F., Tuchfarber, Alfred J., and Oldenick, Robert W. (1978). “Change in the Structure of American Political Attitudes: The Nagging Question of Question Wording.” American Journal of Political Science 22: 250–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brody, Richard A. (1977). “Stability and Change in Party Identification: Presidential to Off-Years.” Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Burnham, Walter Dean (1970). Critical Elections and the Mainsprings of American Politics. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Campbell, Angus, Converse, Philip E., Miller, Warren E. and Stokes, Donald E. (1960). The American Voter. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Campbell, Bruce A. (1977). “Change in the Southern Electorate.” American Journal of Political Science 21: 37–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Bruce A. (1977). “Patterns of Change in the Partisan Loyalties of Native Southerners: 1952–1972.” Journal of Politics 39: 730–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carmines, Edward C., and Stimson, James A. (1980). “The Two Faces of Issue Voting.” American Political Science Review 74: 78–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Converse, Philip E. (1975). “Public Opinion and Voting Behavior.” In Greenstein, Fred I. and Polsby, Nelson W. (eds.), Handbook of Political Science. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. (1976). The Dynamics of Party Support. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. (1969). “Of Time and Partisan Stability.” Comparative Political Studies 2: 139–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irvine, William P., and Gold, H. (1980). “Do Frozen Cleavages Ever Go State? The Bases of the Canadian and Australian Party Systems.” British Journal of Political Science 10: 187–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Key, V. O. Jr., (1955). “A Theory of Critical Elections.” Journal of Politics 17: 3–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Key, V. O. Jr., (1959). “Secular Realignment and the Party System.” Journal of Politics 21: 198–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Niemi, Richard G., Katz, Richard S. and Newman, David (1980). “Reconstructing Past Partisanship: The Failure of the Party Identification Recall Questions.” American Journal of Political Science, forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Page, Benjamin I. (1978). Choices and Echoes in Presidential Elections. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam (1975). “Institutionalization of Voting Patterns, or is Mobilization the Source of Decay?” American Political Science Review 69: 49–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shively, W. Phillips (1979). “The Development of Party Identification Among Adults: Exploration of a Functional Model.” American Political Science Review 73: 1039–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, John L., Piereson, James E. and Marcus, George E. (1978). “Ideological Constraint in the Mass Public: A Methodological Critique and Some New Findings.” American Journal of Political Science 22: 233–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sundquist, James L. (1973). Dynamics of the Party System. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Wolfinger, Raymond, and Arsenau, Robert B. (1978). “Partisan Change in the South, 1952–1975.” In Maisel, Louis and Cooper, Joseph (eds.), Political Parties: Development and Decay. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage, pp. 179–210.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.