Asymmetry in the Political System
Occasional Activists in the Republican and Democratic Parties, 1956-1964
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3540372 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David Nexon (Pitzer College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1971 |
| Volume | 65 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 716-730 |
| Publication date | 1971-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | American Political Science Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1955516 |
| OpenAlex | W2037018898 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 53 |
| References cited | 10 |
By means of the Survey Research Center's national public opinion polls of the electorate during the 1956, 1960, and 1964 elections, the opinions of volunteer activists in the Republican and Democratic Parties were compared to those of rank and file members. On issues that divided rank and file Republicans from rank and file Democrats, Republican activists were found to be far more conservative than ordinary Republicans. Democratic activists, however, had about the same distribution of opinion as rank and file members of their party. Moreover, Republicans were proportionately far more active than Democrats. It was inferred from these findings that the two parties were different kinds of organizations. The Republican Party, it was argued, was a high participation party with an amateur base composed of right wing ideologues, while the Democratic Party was a low participation party with a professionalized base not dependent on ideological incentives to activism
Amateur · Democracy · Economics · Ideology · Incentive · Political science · Politics · Academic Freedom and Politics · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration
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| Unique citing works | 53 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,02 |
| Citation span | 1974 - 2023 (50) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 53 |