Partisan Acquisition, Policy Relevant Parties and Realignments

Abstract

C OHORT studies of partisan development have generally concluded that partisan acquisition and partisan intensity are both characterized by a mixture of life cycle, generational, and period effects (Abramson 1976; Knoke and Hout 1974; Claggett 1981a; Norpoth and Rusk 1982).1 These studies usually found that the older and/or Great Depression era cohorts were characterized by stronger pro-partisan generational effects than other cohorts. They attributed these strong pro-partisan generational effects to their exposure to a more partisan political environment during their youth. Furthermore, they generally equated pro-partisan environments with realignments so that experiencing (or not experiencing) a realignment while young became the explanation for the presence (or absence) of strong pro-partisan generational effects. But the specific aspect or feature of the political environment responsible for these effects, and which presumably varied in magnitude as realigning periods were replaced by normal and decay periods, was never clearly identified. A second feature left unspecified by these studies was the nature of the socialization process which linked the political environment to those generational effects. By building on the more theoretically oriented research into partisan development, which is largely based on cross-sectional (or shortterm panel) analysis of contemporary data, this study will examine several hypotheses concerning the specific aspect of the political environment responsible for these generational effects and the socialization process that might link it to enduring partisan acquisition. This will answer not only some questions about the historical dynamics of partisanship in the United States but will also broaden the supporting