Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T19:40:02.296Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Consensus and Conflict: A Content Analysis of American Party Platforms, 1840–1896

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2018

Adam Silver
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Throughout the nineteenth century, political parties attempted to mediate local, state, and national conflicts to forge a winning electoral coalition. The question here is whether party leaders felt that success depended on offering clear divergent positions to their voters. In other words, to what extent did the parties present alternative programs to the electorate—at any specific time or over time? This study examines the growth of the two-party system in nineteenth-century America by focusing on the interaction of the elites of the Democrats and Whig/Republicans in forging their electoral message. The methodology includes a content analysis of national and state party platforms during presidential election years 1840 through 1896 to show when and where parties emphasized certain issue proposals. Ultimately, this is a story of interparty polarization—over time, the two major parties tended to emphasize the same issues and offer divergent positions in their platforms.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , Fall 2018 , pp. 441 - 467
Copyright
© Social Science History Association, 2018 

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.)

Footnotes

*

I would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers and editors of Social Science History for their valuable comments and suggestions in the preparation of this article. This article appeared in a much earlier form as part of my unpublished doctoral dissertation.

References

Abramowitz, Alan I. (2013) “The electoral roots of America’s dysfunctional government.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 43 (4): 709–731.Google Scholar
Abramowitz, Alan I., and Saunders, Kyle L. (2008) “Is polarization a myth?” The Journal of Politics 70 (2): 542–555.Google Scholar
Aldrich, John H. (2011) Why Parties? A Second Look. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Alexander, Thomas B. (1967) Sectional Stress and Party Strength: A Study of Roll-Call Voting Patterns in the United States House of Representatives, 1836–1860. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.Google Scholar
Alphonso, Gwendoline (2015) “From need to hope: The American family and poverty in partisan discourse, 1900–2012.” Journal of Policy History 27 (4): 592–635.Google Scholar
Altschuler, Glenn C., and Blumin, Stuart M. (2000) Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Barber, Michael, and McCarty, Nolan (2013) “Causes and consequences of polarization.” in Jane Mansbridge and Cathie Jo Martin (eds.) Negotiating Agreement in Politics: Report of the Task Force on Negotiating Agreement in Politics. Washington, DC: American Political Science Association: 19–53. Google Scholar
Beard, Charles A. (1957) “Nature of political parties.” in William Beard (ed.) The Economic Basis of Politics and Related Writings by Charles A. Beard. New York: Vintage Books: 156–167.Google Scholar
Bensel, Richard Franklin (2000) The Political Economy of American Industrialization, 1877–1900. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bensel, Richard Franklin (2004) The American Ballot-Box in the Mid-Nineteenth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Benson, Lee (1961) The Concept of Jacksonian Democracy: New York as a Test Case. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Brady, David W., and Althoff, Phillip (1974) “Party voting in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1890–1910: Elements of a responsible party system.” The Journal of Politics 36 (3): 753–775.Google Scholar
Brady, David, Brody, Richard, and Epstein, David (1989) “Heterogeneous parties and political organization: The U.S. Senate, 1880–1920.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 14 (2): 205–223.Google Scholar
Budge, Ian (2001) “Validating party policy placements.” British Journal of Political Science 31 (1): 210–223.Google Scholar
Budge, Ian, and Farlie, Dennis (1983) Explaining and Predicting Elections: Issue Effects and Party Strategies in Twenty-Three Democracies. Boston: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Burnham, Walter Dean (1986) “Those high nineteenth-century American voting turnouts: Fact or fiction?” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 16 (4): 613–644.Google Scholar
Carmines, Edward G., and Stimson, James A. (1989) Issue Evolution: Race and the Transformation of American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Chester, Edward W. (1977) A Guide to Political Platforms. Hamden, CT: Archon Books.Google Scholar
Clubb, Jerome M., and Traugott, Santa A. (1977) “Partisan cleavage and cohesion in the House of Representatives, 1861–1974.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 7 (3): 375–401.Google Scholar
Coffey, Daniel J. (2011) “More than a dime’s worth: Using state party platforms to assess the degree of American party polarization.” PS: Political Science and Politics 44 (2): 331–337.Google Scholar
Davis, Winfield J. ed (1893) History of Political Conventions in California, 1849–1892. Sacramento: Publications of the California State Library.Google Scholar
Feinstein, Brian D., and Schickler, Eric (2008) “Platforms and partners: The Civil Rights realignment reconsidered.” Studies in American Political Development 22 (1): 1–31.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris P., Abrams, Samuel A., and Pope, Jeremy C. (2008) “Polarization in the American public: Misconceptions and misreadings.” The Journal of Politics 70 (2): 556–560.Google Scholar
Foner, Eric (1995) Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Formisano, Ronald P. (1994) “The invention of the ethnocultural interpretation.” The American Historical Review 99 (2): 453–477.Google Scholar
Gerring, John (1998) Party Ideologies in America, 1828–1996. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gerring, John (1999) “Culture versus economics: An American dilemma.” Social Science History 23 (2): 129–172.Google Scholar
Gienapp, William E. (1982) “‘Politics seem to enter into everything’: Political culture in the north, 1840–1860.” in Stephen E. Maizlish and John J. Kushma (eds.) Essays on American Antebellum Politics, 1840–1860. College Station: Texas A&M University Press: 14–69.Google Scholar
Gienapp, William E. (1987) The Origins of the Republican Party, 1852–1856. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ginsberg, Benjamin (1976) “Elections and public policy.” American Political Science Review 70 (1): 41–49.Google Scholar
Henry, W. E. ed. (1902) State Platforms of the Two Dominant Political Parties in Indiana, 1850–1900. Indianapolis, IN: Privately Printed.Google Scholar
Holt, Michael F. (1978) The Political Crisis of the 1850s. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
Holt, Michael F. (1982) “Winding roads to recovery: The Whig Party from 1844 to 1848.” in Stephen E. Maizlish, and John J. Kushma (eds.) Essays on American Antebellum Politics, 1840–1860. College Station: Texas A&M University Press: 122–165.Google Scholar
Holt, Michael F. (1990) Forging a Majority: The Formation of the Republican Party in Pittsburgh, 1848–1860. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. First published 1969 by Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Holt, Michael F. (1992) “The mysterious disappearance of the American Whig Party.” in Political Parties and American Political Development from the Age of Jackson to the Age of Lincoln. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press: 237–264.Google Scholar
Holt, Michael F. (1999a) “The primacy of party reasserted.” The Journal of American History 86 (1): 151–157.Google Scholar
Holt, Michael F. (1999b) The Rise of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Holt, Michael F. (2001) “Change and continuity in the party period: The substance and structure of American politics, 1835–1885.” in Byron E. Shafer and Anthony J. Badger (eds.) Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775–2000. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas: 93–116.Google Scholar
Holt, Michael F. (2008) By One Vote: The Disputed Presidential Election of 1876. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Howe, Daniel Walker (1979) The Political Culture of the American Whigs. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Jacobson, Gary C. (2013) “Partisan polarization in American politics: A background paper.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 43 (4): 688–708.Google Scholar
Janda, Kenneth, Harmel, Robert, Edens, Christine, and Goff, Patricia (1995) “Changes in party identity: Evidence from party manifestos.” Party Politics 1 (2): 171–196.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Jeffery A. (2000) “Examining the robustness of ideological voting: Evidence from the Confederate House of Representatives.” American Journal of Political Science 44 (4): 811–822.Google Scholar
Jensen, Richard (1971) The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict, 1888–1896. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
John, Richard R. (2004) “Farewell to the ‘party period’: Political economy in nineteenth-century America.” The Journal of Policy History 16 (2): 117–125.Google Scholar
Jordan, Soren, Webb, Clayton McLaughlin, and Wood, B. Dan (2014) “The president, polarization and the party platforms, 1944–2012.” The Forum 12 (1): 169–189.Google Scholar
Kidd, Quentin (2008) “The real (lack of) difference between Republican and Democrats: A computer word score analysis of party platforms, 1996–2004.” PS: Political Science and Politics 41 (3): 519–525.Google Scholar
Kleppner, Paul (1970) The Cross of Culture: A Social Analysis of Midwestern Politics, 1850–1900. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Kleppner, Paul (1979) The Third Electoral System, 1853–1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Kleppner, Paul (1981) “Partisanship and ethnoreligious conflict: The third electoral system, 1853–1892.” in Walter Dean Burnham, Paul Kleppner, Ronald P. Formisano, Samuel P. Hays, Richard Jensen, and William G. Shade (eds.) The Evolution of American Electoral Systems. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press: 113–146.Google Scholar
Klingemann, Hans-Dieter, Hofferbert, Richard I., and Budge, Ian (1994) Parties, Policies, and Democracy. San Francisco: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Klingemann, Hans-Dieter, Volkens, Andrea, Bara, Judith, Budge, Ian, and Macdonald, Michael (2006) Mapping Policy Preference II: Estimates for Parties, Electors, and Governments in Eastern Europe, the European Union, and the OECD, 1990–2003. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Laver, Michael, Benoit, Kenneth, and Garry, John (2003) “Extracting policy positions from political texts using words as data.” American Political Science Review 97 (2): 311–331.Google Scholar
Layman, Geoffrey C., Carsey, Thomas M., and Horowtiz, Juliana Menasce (2006) “Party polarization in American politics: Characteristics, causes, and consequences.” Annual Review of Political Science 9:83–110.Google Scholar
Lee, Frances E. (2016) “Patronage, logrolls, and ‘polarization’: Congressional parties of the Gilded Age, 1876–1896.” Studies in American Political Development 30 (1): 1–12.Google Scholar
Martin, Cathie Jo (2006) “Sectional parties, divided business.” Studies in American Political Development 20 (Fall): 160–184.Google Scholar
“Massachusetts” (1881) Appletons’ Annual Cyclopaedia and Registry of Important Events of the Year 1880. New York: D. Appleton and Company.Google Scholar
McCormick, Richard L. (1974) “Ethno-cultural interpretations of nineteenth century American voting behavior.” Political Science Quarterly 89 (2): 351–377.Google Scholar
McCormick, Richard L. (1986) The Party Period and Public Policy: Politics from the Age of Jackson to the Progressive Era. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
McCormick, Richard P. (1973) The Second American Party System: Party Formation in the Jacksonian Era. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
McCormick, Richard P. (1975) “Political development and the second party system.” in William Nisbet Chambers and Walter Dean Burnham (eds.) The American Party Systems. New York: Oxford University Press: 90–116.Google Scholar
Monroe, Alan D. (1983) “American party platforms and public opinion.” American Journal of Political Science 27 (1): 27–42.Google Scholar
Moore, John L., Preimesberger, Jon P., and Tarr, David R.eds. (2001) Congressional Quarterly’s Guide to U.S. Elections. 4th ed. Vol. I. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
New York Times (1880) “The platform.” New York Times, September 16.Google Scholar
New York Times (1892) “Pledged to Cleveland: convention of the South Carolina Democrats.” New York Times, September 22.Google Scholar
News and Courier (1892) “Playing at politics: Antics of the negroes in the Republican convention.” News and Courier [Charleston, SC], October 1.Google Scholar
New York Tribune (1884) “Drawn-battle at Saratoga: The platform.” New York Tribune, June 19.Google Scholar
Oliver, Willard M., and Marion, Nancy E. (2008) “Political party platforms: Symbolic politics and criminal justice policy.” Criminal Justice Policy Review 20 (10): 1–17.Google Scholar
Pomper, Gerald (1967) “‘If elected, I promise’: American Party platforms.” Midwest Journal of Political Science 11 (3): 318–352.Google Scholar
Poole, Keith T., and Rosenthal, Howard (1997) Congress: A Political-Economic History of Roll Call Voting. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Poole, Keith T., and Rosenthal, Howard (2001) “D-Nominate after 10 years: A comparative update to Congress: A political-economic history of roll-call voting.” Legislative Studies Quarterly 26 (1): 5–29.Google Scholar
Porter, Kirk H., and Johnson, David Bruceeds. (1961) National Party Platforms, 1840–1960. 2nd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Potter, David M. (1976) The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861. New York: Harper Perennial.Google Scholar
Republican Party (New York State). n.d. “Proceedings of the Republican state convention, Utica, NY April 23, 1884,” in Republican Platforms: 1856–1895. Np: Republican Party (New York State).Google Scholar
Reynolds, John F. (2006) The Demise of the American Convention System, 1880–1911. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser (1856) Richmond Whig and Public Advertiser [Richmond, VA], July 18.Google Scholar
Ritter, Gretchen (1997) Goldbugs and Greenbacks: The Antimonopoly Tradition and the Politics of Finance in America, 1865–1896. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shade, William G. (1981) “Political pluralism and party development: The creation of a modern party system, 1815–1852,” in Walter Dean Burnham Paul Kleppner, Ronald P. Formisano, Samuel P. Hays, Richard Jensen, and William G. Shade (eds.) The Evolution of American Electoral Systems. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press: 77–111.Google Scholar
Silbey, Joel H. (1977) A Respectable Minority: The Democratic Party in the Civil War Era, 1860–1868. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
Silbey, Joel H. (1991) The American Political Nation, 1838–1893. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Silbey, Joel H. (2001) “‘To one or another of these parties every man belongs’: The American political experience from Andrew Jackson to the Civil War.” in Byron E. Shafer and Anthony J. Badger (eds.) Contesting Democracy: Substance and Structure in American Political History, 1775–2000. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas: 65–92.Google Scholar
Silbey, Joel H. (2009) Party over Section: The Rough and Ready Presidential Election of 1848. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.Google Scholar
Skocpol, Theda (1992) Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Sundquist, James L. (1983) Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States. Rev. ed. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Ware, Alan (1996) Political Parties and Party Systems. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ware, Alan (2006) The Democratic Party Heads North, 1877–1962. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Watson, Harry L. (2006) Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian America. Rev. ed. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Weingast, Barry R. (1998) “Political stability and Civil War: Institutions, commitment, and American democracy.” in Robert H. Bates, Avner Greif, Margaret Levi, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, and Barry R. Weingast (eds.) Analytic Narratives. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press: 148–193.Google Scholar
Williams, Patrick G. (2007) Beyond Redemption: Texas Democrats after Reconstruction. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.Google Scholar
Winkler, Ernest William, ed. (1916) Platforms of Political Parties in Texas, Bulletin of the University of Texas, No. 53.Google Scholar