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State Party Context and Norms among Delegates to the 2000 National Party Conventions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2021

Thomas M. Carsey ,
John C. Green ,
Richard Herrera  and
Geoffrey C. Layman
Thomas M. Carsey
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
John C. Green
Affiliation:
University of Akron
Richard Herrera
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Geoffrey C. Layman
Affiliation:
University of Maryland
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Abstract

Political scientists have increasingly viewed party activists as important catalysts for party behavior and change in American politics. Understanding the decisionmaking norms of these activists should help inform scholars' broader understanding of party performance. We examine the norms of party decisionmaking expressed by a select group of party activists: delegates to both parties' 2000 national conventions. We focus on how state contextual factors shape the norms these activists hold regarding the proper balance between ideological purity and the pragmatic pursuit of electoral success. The contextual factors we consider include the rules for delegate selection, the financial capacity of state parties, electoral competitiveness between the two parties, party polarization, and state political culture. We find evidence that norms respond as expected to some elements of state party context, but not to others.

Type
Research Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 6 , Issue 3 , Fall 2006 , pp. 247 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

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