"This book argues that the mass party emerged as the product of two distinct but related 'primitive accumulations' - the dismantling of communal land tenure and the corresponding dispossession of means of local administration. It illustrates this argument by studying the party central to one of the longest regimes of the 20th century - the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) in Mexico, which emerged as a mass party during the 1930s and 1940s. I place the PRI in comparative perspective, studying the failed emergence of Bolivsia's Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (MNR) (1952-1964), attempted under similar conditions as the Mexican case. Why was party emergence successful in one case but not the other? As the book shows, the PRI emerged as a mass party in areas in Mexico where land privatization was more intensive and communal village government was weakened, enabling the party's construction and subsequent absorption of peasant unions and organizations. To the extent that the MNR's saw organizational successes, these were limited precisely to areas in Bolivia with similar agrarian structures as those where the PRI succeeded in Mexico. Ultimately, the overall strength of communal property holding and concomitant traditional political authority structures blocked the emergence of the MNR as a mass party. In the parts of Mexico and Bolivia where economic and political expropriation was more pronounced, there was a critical mass of individuals available for political organization, with articulatable interests, and a burgeoning cast of professional politicians, that facilitated connections between the party and the peasantry. The opposite occurred in the areas of the countries were communal property and governmental forms were stronger"--

The first mass political parties appeared in the United States in the 1830's, as the majority of adult white males identified ardently with the Democratic and Whig parties. Ronald Formisano opens a window on American political culture in this case study of antebellum voting and party formation in Michigan. Examining the social bases of voter commitment and the dynamics of grass roots loyalties from Jackson to Lincoln, he proposes that the forming of parties had little to do with issues of political economy, but rather with value conflicts generated by the evangelicals' promotion of a moral society. Borrowing from other disciplines, and elaborating some of the analytical techniques used by Lee Benson in The Concept of Jacksonian Democracy, Professor Formisano studies demographic and voting data to determine patterns of partisan loyalty. His study throws light on the roots of the modern Republican Party, links between religion and politics, and the role of ethnic and cultural loyalties in political life. Originally published in 1971. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Since its first appearance fifteen years ago, Why Parties? has become essential reading for anyone wishing to understand the nature of American political parties. In the interim, the party system has undergone some radical changes. In this landmark book, now rewritten for the new millennium, John H. Aldrich goes beyond the clamor of arguments over whether American political parties are in resurgence or decline and undertakes a wholesale reexamination of the foundations of the American party system. Surveying critical episodes in the development of American political parties—from their formation in the 1790s to the Civil War—Aldrich shows how they serve to combat three fundamental problems of democracy: how to regulate the number of people seeking public office, how to mobilize voters, and how to achieve and maintain the majorities needed to accomplish goals once in office. Aldrich brings this innovative account up to the present by looking at the profound changes in the character of political parties since World War II, especially in light of ongoing contemporary transformations, including the rise of the Republican Party in the South, and what those changes accomplish, such as the Obama Health Care plan. Finally, Why Parties? A Second Look offers a fuller consideration of party systems in general, especially the two-party system in the United States, and explains why this system is necessary for effective democracy.

This 1992 book explains how people acquire political information from elites and the mass media and convert it into political preferences.

What determines the interests, ideologies, and alliances that make up political parties? In its entire history, the United States has had only a handful of party transformations. First to the Party concludes that groups like unions and churches, not voters or politicians, are the most consistent influences on party transformation.

Argues that in the 1830s and 1840s, all three main US political parties, despite their rhetorical differences, maintained consensus about citizenship training through educating children, which produced the first generation of politically passive Americans content to vote loyally for their party and demand little or no input into the formation of its platform. This in turn, is seen as essential for building the type of political party that has endured since. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Explores the value of an organization-centered approach to understanding parties and their role in democratic representation.