Crossing the Aisle
Title | Crossing the Aisle PDF eBook |
Author | Antoine Yoshinaka |
Publisher | Cambridge University Press |
Pages | 283 |
Release | 2016 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1107115892 |
This book is the first systematic study of the causes and consequences of legislative party switching in the US. It provides a sophisticated analysis combining quantitative data from Congress and state legislatures with elite interviews with switchers, non-switchers, and a party leader, including a 'real time' look into the decision.
Party Switches
Title | Party Switches PDF eBook |
Author | Stuart Rothenberg |
Publisher | University Press of America |
Pages | 72 |
Release | 1985 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN |
The Republican party has adopted a two-track strategy to attract Democratic defectors and turn them into partisan Republicans. First, the party has made direct appeals to rank-and-file Democrats during and after campaigns. Second, the party has targeted Democratic officeholders for conversion. By contrast, the Democratic party has been much less active in promoting party switches. In this book, a number of prominent political figures talk about realignment. Many have switched parties, and their thoughts reflect their reasons.
Political Parties and Legislative Party Switching
Title | Political Parties and Legislative Party Switching PDF eBook |
Author | W. Heller |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 316 |
Release | 2009-06-22 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 0230622550 |
Political parties and democratic politics go hand in hand. Since parties matter, it matters too when elected politicians change party affiliation. This book shows why, when, and to what effect politicians switch parties in pursuit of their goals, as constrained by institutions and in response to their environments.
The Stronghold
Title | The Stronghold PDF eBook |
Author | Thomas F. Schaller |
Publisher | Yale University Press |
Pages | 369 |
Release | 2015-01-28 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0300210779 |
Once the party of presidents, the GOP in recent elections has failed to pull together convincing national majorities. Republicans have lost four of the last six presidential races and lost the popular vote in five of the last six. In their lone victory, the party incumbent won—during wartime—by the slimmest of margins. In this fascinating and important book, Thomas Schaller examines national Republican politics since President Ronald Reagan left office in 1989. From Newt Gingrich’s ascent to Speaker of the House through the defeat of Mitt Romney in 2012, Schaller traces the Republican Party’s institutional transformation and its broad consequences, not only for Republicans but also for America. Gingrich’s “Contract with America” set in motion a vicious cycle, Schaller contends: as the GOP became more conservative, it became more Congress-centered, and as its congressional wing grew more powerful, the party grew more conservative. This dangerous loop, unless broken, may signal a future of increasing radicalization, dependency on a shrinking pool of voters, and less viability as a true national party. In a thought-provoking conclusion, the author discusses repercussions of the GOP decline, among them political polarization and the paralysis of the federal government.
Super PACs
Title | Super PACs PDF eBook |
Author | Louise I. Gerdes |
Publisher | Greenhaven Publishing LLC |
Pages | 113 |
Release | 2014-05-20 |
Genre | Young Adult Nonfiction |
ISBN | 0737776552 |
The passage of Citizens United by the Supreme Court in 2010 sparked a renewed debate about campaign spending by large political action committees, or Super PACs. Its ruling said that it is okay for corporations and labor unions to spend as much as they want in advertising and other methods to convince people to vote for or against a candidate. This book provides a wide range of opinions on the issue. Includes primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives; eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials, and many others.
How America’s Political Parties Change (and How They Don’t)
Title | How America’s Political Parties Change (and How They Don’t) PDF eBook |
Author | Michael Barone |
Publisher | Encounter Books |
Pages | 122 |
Release | 2019-10-15 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1641770791 |
The election of 2016 prompted journalists and political scientists to write obituaries for the Republican Party—or prophecies of a new dominance. But it was all rather familiar. Whenever one of our two great parties has a setback, we’ve heard: “This is the end of the Democratic Party,” or, “The Republican Party is going out of existence.” Yet both survive, and thrive. We have the oldest and third oldest political parties in the world—the Democratic Party founded in 1832 to reelect Andrew Jackson, the Republican Party founded in 1854 to oppose slavery in the territories. They are older than almost every American business, most American colleges, and many American churches. Both have seemed to face extinction in the past, and have rebounded to be competitive again. How have they managed it? Michael Barone, longtime co-author of The Almanac of American Politics, brings a deep understanding of our electoral history to the question and finds a compelling answer. He illuminates how both parties have adapted, swiftly or haltingly, to shifting opinion and emerging issues, to economic change and cultural currents, to demographic flux. At the same time, each has maintained a constant character. The Republican Party appeals to “typical Americans” as understood at a given time, and the Democratic Party represents a coalition of “out-groups.” They are the yin and yang of American political life, together providing vehicles for expressing most citizens’ views in a nation that has always been culturally, religiously, economically, and ethnically diverse. The election that put Donald Trump in the White House may have appeared to signal a dramatic realignment, but in fact it involved less change in political allegiances than many before, and it does not portend doom for either party. How America’s Political Parties Change (and How They Don’t) astutely explains why these two oft-scorned institutions have been so resilient.
The Partisan Sort
Title | The Partisan Sort PDF eBook |
Author | Matthew Levendusky |
Publisher | University of Chicago Press |
Pages | 200 |
Release | 2009-12-15 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 0226473678 |
As Washington elites drifted toward ideological poles over the past few decades, did ordinary Americans follow their lead? In The Partisan Sort, Matthew Levendusky reveals that we have responded to this trend—but not, for the most part, by becoming more extreme ourselves. While polarization has filtered down to a small minority of voters, it also has had the more significant effect of reconfiguring the way we sort ourselves into political parties. In a marked realignment since the 1970s—when partisan affiliation did not depend on ideology and both major parties had strong liberal and conservative factions—liberals today overwhelmingly identify with Democrats, as conservatives do with Republicans. This “sorting,” Levendusky contends, results directly from the increasingly polarized terms in which political leaders define their parties. Exploring its far-reaching implications for the American political landscape, he demonstrates that sorting makes voters more loyally partisan, allowing campaigns to focus more attention on mobilizing committed supporters. Ultimately, Levendusky concludes, this new link between party and ideology represents a sea change in American politics.