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This paper examines party organizations in LA from the perspective of those at the grassroots. An assessment of local organizations as well as the attitudes of the party activists themselves shows that politics in this state are in a period of transition. Over the past decade, Republicans have continued to make significant electoral gains; however, the major changes have occurred within the Democratic Party. The demographic transformation of Democratic activists & their corresponding support for more liberal policy positions contributes to an increasingly polarized party system in the state. 7 Tables, 6 References. Adapted from the source document.

Vier Jahre nach der Wiedervereinigung sind die gesellschaftspolitischen Unterschiede zwischen Ost- und Westdeutschland deutlich sichtbar. Der Autor versucht, anhand des "Superwahljahres" 1994 einige Aussagen über die Parteienlandschaft in den "Neuen Bundesländern" zu treffen, um sie gegenüber den "Alten Bundesländern" abzugrenzen. Die Organisation der Parteien und die Parteimitgliedschaft stehen im Zentrum der Untersuchung. Die Parteienlandschaft in den Neuen Bundesländern ist weit gefächert und dennoch zeigt sich eine Polarisierung im Parteiensystem. Die PDS uebernimmt eine tragende Rolle im politischen Entscheidungsprozeß. Die etablierten Parteien wie CDU/CSU und SPD verlieren ihre Führungsrolle, was zur Instabilität des politischen Systems führen kann. (FUB-Hsf)

A large literature has studied the trend of greater polarization between Democrats & Republicans in Congress. This paper empirically examines the extent to which inflation & unemployment explain cyclical movements of polarization over time. An informal application of the standard Downsian spatial competition model of parties generates the following relationships, ceteris paribus: (1) inflation should be associated with policy convergence, (2) unemployment should be associated with polarization, (3) the effect of unemployment on polarization should be larger in magnitude than the effect of inflation on convergence, & (4) the effect of unemployment on polarization should be stronger in the House than in the Senate. We estimate the relationship between vote records & business cycle conditions, 1947-1999, using a GLS model with varying lags. Our results are broadly consistent with these business cycle hypotheses of polarization, though greater support is found in House data than in Senate data. 5 Tables, 34 References. Adapted from the source document.

For the most part, scholars who study American political parties in the electorate continue to characterize them as weak and in decline. Parties on the elite level, however, have experienced a resurgence over the last two decades. Such a divergence between elite behavior and mass opinion is curious, given that most models of public opinion place the behavior of elites at their core. In fact, I find that parties in the electorate have experienced a noteworthy resurgence over the last two decades. Greater partisan polarization in Congress has clarified the parties' ideological positions for ordinary Americans, which in turn has increased party importance and salience on the mass level. Although parties in the 1990s are not as central to Americans as they were in the 1950s, they are far more important today than in the 1970s and 1980s. The party decline thesis is in need of revision. (American Political Science Review / FUB)

This study consists of an analysis of representation from southern states to determine if the creation of majority-minority districts resulted in more ideologically polarized southern US House delegations. Descriptive statistics & regression analysis of Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) scores indicate that the standard deviation of ADA scores are larger in the eight states that engaged in racial redistricting. The influx of conservative Republicans & African American Democrats in 1992 created the more polarized patterns. Polarization was still present after the 1996 elections, although the redistricting effect was muted as other southern states picked up Republican representatives after both the 1994 election & LA's substantial modification of one of its black majority districts prior to the 1996 election. Racial redistricting would seem to make centrist coalition building more difficult, but in some states, it also weakens the increasingly conservative voting patterns experienced by most of the South in the 1990s. 4 Tables, 36 References. Adapted from the source document.