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E. E. Schattschneider and the Responsible Party Model

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

John Kenneth White
John Kenneth White*
Affiliation:
Catholic University of America
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Extract

Shortly before his death in 1971 E. E. Schattschneider said, “I suppose the most important thing I have done in my field is that I have talked longer and harder and more persistently and enthusiastically about political parties than anyone else alive.” Schattschneider's claim is not boastful, but factual. Exactly fifty years ago he completed Party Government, a book that remains a “must” read for students of the U.S. party system. But Schattschneider did more than write books. As Chairman of the APSA-sanctioned Committee on Political Parties, he presided over a debate that resulted in the seminal report, Toward a More Responsible Two-Party System. Like Party Government, this also is a “must” read. Evron Kirkpatrick proclaimed it “a landmark in the history of political science as policy science” (1971). Clinton Rossiter said he would “recommend it … to all who are interested in moving toward stronger party government” (1960). Theodore J. Lowi ranked the Schattschneider committee report as “second only to the 1937 President's Committee on Administrative Management as a contribution by academics to public discourse on the fundamentals of American democracy” (1985). William Crotty believed it exercised “the most significant influence on the debate over the operation of political parties that occurred between the Progressive period and the party reform movement of the 1970s” (1980).

The responsible party model has had a long life in part because of the passionate arguments Schattschneider made on its behalf.

Type
Research Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , June 1992 , pp. 167 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1992

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