"A Place on the Ballot": Fusion Politics and Antifusion Laws

Abstract

ONLY IN RECENT YEARS have historians seriously investigated the institutional framework of the American electoral system and begun to examine the political effects of ballot forms, voting systems, and suffrage requirements. In particular, some scholars have sought to explain the dramatic changes in political behavior that occurred around the turn of this century as unintended consequences of reforms in the structural properties of the electoral system rather than as a reflection of any larger development. While illuminating the political results of such institutional changes, these scholars have largely ignored the political context within which the changes evolved. Thus, they have regarded those structural modifications as essentially apolitical or nonpartisan and have sharply rejected any view that change stemmed from an antidemocratic conspiracy to control the political system.' Yet, at least one little-known development in the