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Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2010

Daniel Klinghard
Daniel Klinghard
Affiliation:
College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts
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Summary

Between 1880 and 1896, national party leaders in both major American parties discarded the basic organizational preferences that had guided them since the formulation of the Jacksonian party organization in the 1830s and 1840s, and adopted new ones that informed the parties' development throughout the twentieth century. The purpose of this book is to bring this late-nineteenth-century transformation back into scholars' understanding of the development of American parties. These changes were legitimated by a new idea of party that was as portentous as that of the late 1790s described by Richard Hofstadter as the rise of “the idea of a party system.”

Rejecting the traditional understanding of the national party organizations as a congeries of independent, local organizations, national party leaders reconfigured the conduct of national campaigns to reach voters directly with nationally printed material and with direct presidential campaigning. Contrary to the traditional parties' insistence on local control of campaigns, they centralized control of presidential campaigns in the national committees, which became more capable than ever before of transposing national politics into national electoral mandates. Combating the traditional insistence on restraining the independence of the national committees, they empowered them to raise money independently of state party organizations, expanding the national organizations' ability to fund their own operations. They broke through the traditional geographic boundaries of party regularity to found party clubs designed to nationalize the party-in-the-electorate.

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Chapter
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The Nationalization of American Political Parties, 1880–1896 , pp. 1 - 24
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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  • Introduction
  • Daniel Klinghard, College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts
  • Book: The Nationalization of American Political Parties, 1880–1896
  • Online publication: 06 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511750748.002
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  • Introduction
  • Daniel Klinghard, College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts
  • Book: The Nationalization of American Political Parties, 1880–1896
  • Online publication: 06 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511750748.002
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Daniel Klinghard, College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts
  • Book: The Nationalization of American Political Parties, 1880–1896
  • Online publication: 06 July 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511750748.002
Available formats
×