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The Dynamics of Structural Realignment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Stuart Elaine Macdonald  and
George Rabinowitz
Stuart Elaine Macdonald
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
George Rabinowitz
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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Abstract

Governments render decisions on how resources and values are allocated in a society. In the United States, Congress is the institution in which most of the key allocating decisions are made. To the extent the U.S. political system is integrated, the coalitions that form around the issues debated in Congress should be reflected in the coalitions that support presidential candidates and those that support the major political parties. We formulate a spatial theory of political change in which new ideological cleavages appear in congressional behavior and presidential elections and gradually reorganize the mass party base. The theory leads us explicitly to consider the question of dealignment and to specify conditions under which the parties will lose support from voters.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 81 , Issue 3 , September 1987 , pp. 775 - 796
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1987

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