Partisan Preferences in Southern State Legislatures Öffentlichkeit

Gunning, Matthew Lynn (2011)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/n583xv03w?locale=de
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Abstract

Abstract
Partisan Preferences in Southern State Legislatures
By Matthew Gunning

Recent scholarship on political party strength in the U.S. House of Representatives has focused
upon the revival of formal party leadership positions. Other scholars have suggested these
changes are not meaningful because parties cannot cause House members to vote against their
preferences. This debate has caused scholars to look for empirical evidence of direct party
effects-situations where the presence of political party activity could be credited with shifting
or biasing outcomes.

This dissertation seeks to contribute to our understanding of party influence by looking at
evidence of indirect party effects on legislator preferences. In particular it seeks to demonstrate
that through their monopoly over the nomination phase of elections parties select in favor of
candidates who hold a specific party-ideology. This partisan filter effect on legislator preferences
is present when primary voters are polarized between the two parties.

A cross-sectional examination of ten southern State House chambers will demonstrate that when
competitive parties exist across that region, the filtering effect of parties produces a predictable
polarization of legislator preferences. Legislators who survive the polarized nominating
electorate tend to be non-centrist in their ideological location. In contrast, this polarization effect
is lacking during the one-party period when nearly all registered voters participated in the same
nominating election.

A second indirect effect of parties is the reduction of the multi-dimensional policy space. When a
competitive party system exists and polarized electorates filter in favor of candidates who adopt
the party ideology, roll call voting within the legislative chamber is primarily one-dimensional.
When party filtering is absent, the policy space is multi-dimensional.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction and Background 1
CHAPTER TWO: Historical Variation of U.S. Parties 9
CHAPTER THREE: Preferences, Primaries and Polarization 25
CHAPTER FOUR: Political Parties and Spatial Constraints 44
CHAPTER FIVE: Political Change in Georgia 1960-2005 60
CHAPTER SIX: Coalition Voting Patterns in the Georgia House 1960-2005 75
CHAPTERS SEVEN: Party, Preferences and Sequence 104
CHAPTER EIGHT: Conclusion 112















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