Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T04:42:16.322Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Decline of Political Partisanship in the United States: Negativity or Neutrality?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Martin P. Wattenberg
Martin P. Wattenberg*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines attitudes towards the two major political parties in the United States from 1952 to 1980, using national election study data from open-ended likes/dislikes questions. The major trend which is found is a shift toward neutral evaluations of the parties. A reinterpretation of party decline in the electorate is offered, in which the much-discussed alienation from parties is largely rejected as an explanation. Rather, it is argued that the link between parties and candidates has been substantially weakened over the years and hence that political parties have become increasingly meaningless to the electorate.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 75 , Issue 4 , December 1981 , pp. 941 - 950
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

Abramson, Paul (1976). “Generational Change and the Decline of Party Identification in America: 1952-1974.” American Political Science Review 70: 469–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersen, Kristi (1976). “Generation, Partisan Shift, and Realignment: A Glance Back to the New Deal.” In Nie, Normanet al., The Changing American Voter. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Black, Merle, and Rabinowitz, George (1980). “American Electoral Change: 1952-1972 (with a note on 1976).” In Crotty, William (ed.), The Party Symbol: Readings on Political Parties. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Converse, Philip E. (1976). The Dynamics of Party Support: Cohort-Analyzing Party Identification. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Cotter, Cornelius P., and Bibby, John F. (1980). “Institutional Development of Parties and the Thesis of Party Decline.” Political Science Quarterly 95: 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodd, Lawrence C., and Oppenheimer, Bruce I. (eds.), (1977). Congress Reconsidered. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Fishel, Jeff, ed. (1978). Parties and Elections in an Anti-Party Age. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Jewell, Malcolm E., and Olson, David M. (1978). American Stale Political Parties and Elections. Homewood, Ill.: Dorsey Press.Google Scholar
Kirkpatrick, Samuel, Lyons, William and Fitzgerald, Michael (1976). “Candidates, Parties and Issues in the American Electorate: Two Decades of Change.” In Kirkpatrick, Samuel (ed.), American Electoral Behavior: Change and Stability. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Miller, Arthur H., and Miller, Warren E. (1976). “Rejoinder: Ideology in the 1972 Election.” American Political Science Review 70: 832–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nie, Norman H., Verba, Sidney, and Petrocik, John R. (1976). The Changing American Voter. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Seligman, Lester G. (1978). “The Presidential Office and the President as Party Leader (with a Postscript on the Kennedy-Nixon Era).” In Fishel, Jeff (ed.), Parties and Elections in an Anti-Party Age. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Sundquist, James L. (1973). Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Weisberg, Herbert F. (1980). “A Multidimensional Conceptualization of Party Identification.” Political Behavior 2: 33–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfe, Michael W. (1979). “Personal-Contact Campaigning in Presidential Elections: Who's Been Talking to All Those Voters and What Have They Accomplished?” Presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.