Activists and Partisan Realignment in the United States

G. Miller; N. Schofield

DOI:10.1017/S0003055403000650

Corpus ID: 12885628

Activists and Partisan Realignment in the United States

@article{Miller2003ActivistsAP,
  title={Activists and Partisan Realignment in the United States},
  author={G. Miller and N. Schofield},
  journal={American Political Science Review},
  year={2003},
  volume={97},
  pages={245-260}
}

G. Miller, N. Schofield

Published 2003

Sociology

American Political Science Review

In this paper, we contend that party realignments occur due to the interaction of candidates and activists. We examine independent party candidates who are motivated primarily to win elections but who use activist contributions to increase vote shares. In a two-dimensional policy space, such candidates will on occasion engage in “flanking” moves so as to enlist coalitions of disaffected voters, at the risk of alienating some of their traditional activist supporters. We argue that a result of… CONTINUE READING

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