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The United States in Crisis: a Review of the American Political Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

David H. McKay
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Review Article
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Government and Opposition , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , 01 July 1979 , pp. 373 - 385
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1979

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References

1 Angus Campbell, Converse, Philip E. Miller, Warren E. The American Voter, New York, Wiley, 1960.Google Scholar

2 Nisbet Chambers, William and Burnham, Walter Dean (eds.), The American Party Systems: Stages of Political Development, New York: Oxford, 2nd Edition, 1975, p. 318,Google Scholar Table 1 (’Don’t knows’ are excluded).

3 CBS/New York Times Poll, September 1978 (mimeo), p. 14. 5% registered no opinion.

4 One serious problem is that some of the academic studies include Republican or Democrat ‘leaning’ Independents among party identifiers. The figures listed in the text are, however, taken from responses to the question: ‘Generally speaking, do you usually consider yourself, a Republican, a Democrat, an Independent, or what?’ or close variations on this. Question from CBS/New York Times Poll, September 1978.

5 Huntington, Samuel P. ‘The Democratic Distemper’, The Public Interest No. 41, Fall 1975, p. 20.Google Scholar See also DeVries, Walter and Tarrance, L. The Ticket Splitters: A New Force in American Politics, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Eerdermans, 1972.Google Scholar

6 See Tufte, Edward ‘Determinants of the Outcomes of Midterm Elections’, American Political Science Review, Vol. 69, 09 1975, pp. 812–26.Google Scholar President Carter’s public ratings have been very low by historical standards, in June 1978 only 38% of the public approved of the way he was handling his job and 41% disapproved. CBS/New York Times Poll, June 1978 (mimeo), Part II, p. 9. No President in recent years has fared so badly. For comparisons, see Public Opinion, Vol. 1, No. 2, May/June 1978, p. 34.

7 See Burnham, Walter Dean ‘Party Systems and the Political Process’, in Chambers and Burnham, op. cit. Google Scholar

8 As noted, voters are also influenced by the personal performance of the President, see Tufte, Edward R. op. cit.; Kernell, Samuel ‘Presidential Popularity and Negative Voting: an Alternative Explanation of the Midterm Congressional Decline of the President’s Party’, American Political Science Review, Vol. 71, 03 1977, pp. 44–66.Google Scholar For a general discussion of congressional voting, see Patterson, Samuel C. ‘The Semi‐Sovereign Congressa’ in Anthony King (ed.), The New American Political System, Washington D. C.: American Enterprise Institute, 1978, pp. 139–153.Google Scholar

9 Burnham, ‘American Politics in the 1970s: Beyond Party?’, in Chambers and Burnham, op. cit., p. 350.Google Scholar

10 Brody, Richard A. has shown that the deviation of actual voting in 1976 from expected voting was easily the greatest since 1920. Brody, Richard A. ‘Political Participation’, in King (ed.), op. cit., p. 291.Google Scholar

11 Newsweek Poll, in Newsweek, 12 April 1976, p. 32.

12 See Miller, Arthur H. ‘Political Issues and Trust in Government 1964–1970’, American Political Science Review, Vol. 68, No. 3, 09 1974, pp. 951–972.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 Quoted in Burnham, op. cit., p. 345.Google Scholar

14 Gallup Opinion Index, Report No. 144, July 1977, p. 5.

15 Reported in Public Opinion, Vol. 1, No. 2, May/June 1978.

16 Miller, op. cit., pp. 970–972.Google Scholar

17 CBS/New York Times Poll, February 1978.

18 See Brody in King, op. cit., pp. 315–323.Google Scholar

19 See Kirkpatrick, Jeane ‘Representation in the American National Conventions: The Case of 1972’, British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 5, Part 3, 07 1975, pp. 265–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 See Rubin, Richard L. Party Dynamics: The Democratic Coalition and the Politics of Change, New York, Columbia University Press, 1976, Chaps 7 and 8.Google Scholar

21 Bell, Daniel ‘The End of American Exceptionalism’, The Public Interest, No. 41, Fall 1975, pp. 193–224.Google Scholar

22 Lipset, S. M. ‘The Paradox of American Politics’, The Public Interest, ibid., pp. 142–165.Google Scholar

23 Huntington, Samuel ‘The Democratic Distemper’, The Public Interest, op. cit. Google Scholar

24 See the special edition of The Public Interest, ‘On Equality’, No. 29, Fall, 1972, and especially the articles by Bell and Lipset.

25 The idea of ‘overload’ or ‘ungovernability’ has gained popularity among a variety of political scientists in recent years, but it is an essential part of the neo‐conservative thesis. See Bell, Daniel ‘The Revolution of Rising Entitlements’, Fortune, 04 1975, pp. 98–103;Google Scholar Aaron Wildavsky, ‘Government and the People’, Commentary, August 1973, pp. 25–32.

26 Burnham, Walter Dean ‘The End of American Politics’, in Kenneth Dolbeare and Murray Edelman, Institutions, Policies and Goals, New York, Heath, 1973, p. 156.Google Scholar

27 Miller, Arthur H. ‘Political Issues and Trust in Government’, paper before the annual Conference of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D. C., 1972, p. 1.Google Scholar

28 Broder, David S. The Party’s Over: The Failure of Politics in America, New York, Harper & Row, 1972, p. 257.Google Scholar

29 See Kirkpatrick, op. cit., and her book The New Presidential Elite, New York, Russell Sage Foundation and Twentieth Century Fund, 1976.Google Scholar

30 Generally, those employing the models of voting behaviour of the ‘Michigan School’.

31 Miller, Warren E. and Levitin, Teresa E. Leadership and Change: The New Politics and the American Electorate, Cambridge, Mass., Winthrop, 1976, pp. 192–200.Google Scholar

32 Miller and Levitin, op. cit., p. 223.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., p. 227.

34 Ibid., pp. 224–232.

35 Miller and Levitin, ibid., pp. 223–232; Nie, John R. Verba, Sidney Petrocik, Norman H. The Changing American Voter, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1976;Google Scholar Ranney, Austin ‘The Political Parties Reform and Decline’ in King (ed.), op. cit., pp. 213–47.Google Scholar See also, Converse, Philip The Dynamics of Party Support, Beverly Hill, Sage, 1976; Sundquist, James L. Dynamics of the Party System, Washington, DC, Brookings, 1973.Google Scholar

36 The rise of Independents and of issue voting has inspired considerable debate on the relevance and validity of party identification as a concept. See Margolis, Michael ‘From Confusion to Confusion: Issues and the American Voter’, APSR, Vol. 71, 03 1977, pp. 31–43; Niemi, Richard G. and Weisberg, Herbert F. (eds.), Controversies in American Voting Behaviour, San Francisco, Freeman, 1976.Google Scholar

37 See the conclusions to Miller and Levitin, Ranney and Nie et al.

38 83 people died in 80 disturbances in 1968; by 1972 just 9 died in 21 disturbances, Statistical Abstract of the U. S., 1973, Washington, DC, US Government Printing Office, 1973, Table 233, p. 48. No figures are available past 1972, but it is likely that the downward trend has continued.

39 See Crewe, Ivor ‘Prospects for Party Realignment: An Anglo American Comparison’, Comparative Politics (forthcoming).Google Scholar

40 See Converse, op. cit. and Sundquist, op. cit.

41 The tax revolt movement hardly qualifies as evidence of fundamental disagreement. For one thing its support is fragmented and erratic. For another, it appeals to many voters more as a slogan than as a coherent ideology. See ‘The Year of the Referendum’, Public Opinion, Vol. 1, No. 5, 1978, pp. 26–27.

42 Ladd, Everett Carll Jr and Hadley, Charles D. Transformations of the American Party System, New York, Norton, 1975, p. 343.Google Scholar