Beyond the New Deal: Ideological Differences between Eleven State Democratic Parties, 1956-1980

Abstract

HE conventional interpretation of the breakup of the Democratic coalition in the post-New Deal era emphasizes the emergence of new issues and a new class structure in the 1960s and 1970s (Dawson 1973; Sundquist 1973; Nie, Verba, Petrocik 1976; Ladd and Hadley 1978; Shafer 1985). According to this view, Democrats in the New Deal era built a heterogeneous lower-class coalition around the theme of government nationalism. By the 1960s and 1970s, however, the economic-dominated agenda of the New Deal was supplanted by a multi-issue agenda that included not only economic issues but a vast array of social and cultural issues. This, coupled with changes in the class structure associated with postindustrial society, resulted in a fracturing of the New Deal Democratic coalition. Despite the fact that one of the most distinguishing features of the American party system is its decentralization, little systematic research has examined the agendas of state Democratic organizations during the period of decline in the New Deal party system. Realignment theorists suggest that when there is general agreement on what constitutes the central thrust of the policy agenda, stable, long-term electoral groupings develop (Burnham 1970; Sundquist 1973; Campbell and Trilling 1980). When the component parts of the national party (the state parties) disagree on and about the central thrust of the political agenda, the potential exists for the breakup of the old party system. Did state Democratic organizations in the 1960s and 1970s address the social and cultural issues that, many say, contributed to the ultimate breakup of the New Deal system? If so, did such issues create higher intraparty disagreement than the economic issues of the New Deal? This study employs a content analysis of Democratic platforms from eleven states during the period 1956-80 in an attempt to address these two questions.