Ideological Integration in the Democratic and Republican Parties, 1956-1992

Abstract

In recent years scholars have observed a process of organizational nationalization in both the Democratic and Republican parties. This study updates data from two earlier studies, which attempted to determine if organizational nationalization of the parties was associated with ideological nationalization of party platforms. State and national party platforms between 1956 and 1992 are content analyzed to determine the extent of ideological integration. Similar to the two earlier studies of ideological integration, the data show only a modest movement toward intra-party integration, and little evidence of the development of a highly ideological and nationalized party system.