Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T23:07:00.014Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Trends in the Partisan Composition of State Legislatures: A Response to Fiorina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Jeffrey M. Stonecash  and
Anna M. Agathangelou
Jeffrey M. Stonecash
Affiliation:
Maxwell School, Syracuse University
Anna M. Agathangelou
Affiliation:
Oberlin College
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The percentage of state legislative seats won by Democrats in nonsouthern states has increased steadily since World War II. Fiorina (1994) argues that this is because of the professionalization of state legislatures: Legislatures now meet longer and pay higher salaries; legislative positions which require more time are less attractive to Republicans, who can make more money elsewhere; higher salaries attract Democrats, who make less in the private sector. That analysis has several serious flaws. First, nonsouthern states have gradually become more Democratic at all levels as part of a long-term regional political realignment. The rise in Democrats in legislatures outside the South is due more to this realignment than to legislative professionalization. Second, trends in southern states contradict his hypothesis. Professionalization has increased, but state legislatures are becoming more Republican. Finally, Fiorina's analysis is worth careful reconsideration because it suggests that there is little connection between constituencies and partisan outcomes.

Type
Forum
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 91 , Issue 1 , March 1997 , pp. 148 - 155
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1997

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

REFERENCES

Allswang, John M. 1971. Bosses, Machines, and Urban Voters. Port Washington, NY: Kenikat Press.Google Scholar
Baum, Laurence, and Patterson, Samuel C.. 1992. “Ohio: Party Change without Realignment.” In Party Realignment and State Politics, ed. Moakley, Maureen. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Pp. 192–209.Google Scholar
Benjamin, Gerald, and Malbin, Michael J.. 1992. Limiting Legislative Terms. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Bibby, John F. 1992. “Wisconsin Electoral Politics: Realignment Bypasses the Badger State.” In Party Realignment and State Politics, ed. Moakley, Maureen. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Pp. 144–62.Google Scholar
Black, Earl, and Black, Merle. 1987. Politics and Society in the South. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Carmines, Edward G., and Stimson, James A.. 1989. Issue Evolution. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Carmines, Edward G., Renton, Steven H., and Stimson, James A.. 1984. “Events and Alignments: The Party Image Link.” In Controversies in Voting Behavior, 2d ed., ed. Niemi, Richard G. and Weisberg, Herbert F.. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press. Pp. 545–60.Google Scholar
Cotter, Patrick R. 1992. “Alabama: The Unsettled Electorate.” In Party Realignment and State Politics, ed. Moakley, Maureen. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Pp. 91–105.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris. 1977. Congress: Keystone to the Washington Establishment. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris. 1994. “Divided Government in the American States: A Byproduct of Legislative Professionalism.” American Political Science Review 88 (06):304–16.Google Scholar
Gordon, R. A. 1968. “Issues in Multiple Regression.” American Journal of Sociology 73 (2):592–616.Google Scholar
Jewell, Malcolm E., and Patterson, Samuel C.. 1977. The Legislative Process in the United States, 3d ed. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Keefe, William J., and Ogul, Morris S.. 1986. The American Legislative Process: Congress and the States, 6th ed. New York: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Key, V. O. Jr. 1959. “Secular Realignment and the Party System.” Journal of Politics 21 (2):198–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemann, Nicholas. 1991. The Promised Land. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Lubell, Samuel. 1965. The Future of American Politics, 3d rev. ed. New York: Harper Colophon.Google Scholar
Mayhew, David R. 1967. Two-Party Competition in the New England States. Amherst: Bureau of Government Research, University of Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Mayhew, David R. 1974. The Electoral Connection. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Merton, Robert K. 1976. “The Latent Functions of the Machine.” In The City Boss in America, ed. Callow, Alexander B. Jr. New York: Oxford University Press. Pp. 23–33.Google Scholar
Moakley, Maureen. 1992. “Secular Realignment in New Jersey.” In Party Realignment and State Politics, ed. Moakley, Maureen. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Pp. 225–44.Google Scholar
Parker, Suzanne L. 1992. “Florida: A Polity in Transition.” In Party Realignment and State Politics, ed. Moakley, Maureen. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Pp. 106–26.Google Scholar
Petrocik, John R. 1987. “Realignment: New Party Coalitions and the Nationalization of the South.” Journal of Politics 49 (05): 347–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, Peverill. 1992. “Iowa and the Drift to the Democrats.” In Party Realignment and State Politics, ed. Moakley, Maureen. (Columbus: Ohio State University Press). 179–91.Google Scholar
Stanley, Jeanie R. 1992. “Party Realignment in Texas.” In Party Realignment and State Politics, ed. Moakley, Maureen. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Pp. 74–91.Google Scholar
Stonecash, Jeffrey M. 1993. “The Pursuit and Retention of Legislative Office in New York, 1870–1990: Reconsidering Sources of Change.” Polity 26 (Winter):301–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stonecash, Jeffrey M. 1995. American State and Local Politics. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt and Brace.Google Scholar
Stonecash, Jeffrey M. 1997a. “The Increase in Class Voting in Congressional Elections in Non-Southern States, 1952–1992,” Department of Political Science, Maxwell School, Syracuse University. Typescript.Google Scholar
Stonecash, Jeffrey M. 1997b. “Class, Race, and Party in State Legislative Elections.” Department of Political Science, Maxwell School, Syracuse University. Typescript.Google Scholar
Stonecash, Jeffrey M., and Lindstrom, Nicole R.. 1996. “Class, Race, and Party in U.S. House Elections.” Presented at the 1996 Southern Political Science Association Meetings, Atlanta, Georgia.Google Scholar
Sundquist, James L. 1983. Dynamics of the Party System, rev. ed. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.