Party Ideologies in America, 1828-1996

John Gerring

Cambridge University Press, Feb 5, 2001 - Political Science - 337 pages

This book challenges traditional notions of American party politics and political culture. Usually, American politics is looked on as relatively consensual and nonideological, but John Gerring argues that American party history and, by extension, American political history at large have been irreducibly ideological. He contends that the major parties have articulated views that were, and are, coherent, differentiated, and stable. The argument rests on evidence provided by election rhetoric - speeches, party platforms, and other campaign tracts disseminated by party leaders during presidential campaigns. Using these texts, Professor Gerring traces the values, beliefs, and issue-positions that have defined party life from the 1830s to the 1990s. Party Ideologies in America, 1828-1996 thus presents a historical synthesis of mainstream party politics from the birth of competitive parties to the present day.

Contents

• Arguments: 3
• Rethinking the Role of Ideology in American Party Life: 22
• The WhigRepublican Party: 55
• The National Epoch 18281924: 57
• The Neoliberal Epoch 19281992: 125
• The Democratic Party: 159
• The Jeffersonian Epoch 18281892: 161
• The Populist Epoch 18961948: 187
• The Universalist Epoch 19521992: 232
• Conclusions Sources of Party Ideology: 255
• What Drives Ideological Change?: 257
• 1996: 276
• The Search for a Method: 287
• Selected Bibliography: 299
• Index: 335

About the author

John Gerring (PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 1993) is Professor of Political Science at Boston University, where he teaches courses on methodology and comparative politics. His books include Social Science Methodology: A Criterial Framework (Cambridge University Press, 2001), Case Study Research: Principles and Practices (Cambridge University Press, 2007), A Centripetal Theory of Democratic Governance (Cambridge University Press, 2008), Concepts and Method: Giovanni Sartori and His Legacy (Routledge, 2009), Social Science Methodology: Tasks, Strategies, and Criteria (Cambridge University Press, 2011), Global Justice: A Prioritarian Manifesto (in process), and Democracy and Development: A Historical Perspective (in process). He served as a fellow of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, NJ), as a member of The National Academy of Sciences' Committee on the Evaluation of USAID Programs to Support the Development of Democracy, as President of the American Political Science Association's Organized Section on Qualitative and Multi-Method Research, and is the current recipient of a grant from the National Science Foundation to collect historical data related to colonialism and long-term development.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Party Ideologies in America, 1828-1996; Party Ideologies in America, 1828-1996, John Gerring
• Author: John Gerring
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2001
• ISBN: 0521785901, 9780521785907
• Length: 337 pages
• Subjects: Political Science / American Government / General; Political Science / History & Theory; Political Science / Political Process / Political Parties