Party Contributions and Party Unity: Can Loyalty Be Bought?

Abstract

olitical parties at the national level are playing an increasingly important role in U.S. congressional politics. The national party committees, led by the Republican committees' pioneering efforts, have in recent years provided unprecedented amounts of support to congressional candidates in the areas of campaign management, finance, media and communications, and voter registration and mobilization (Jacobson 1985, 1985-86; Herrnson 1986, 1987; Adamany 1984; Reichley 1985; Sabato 1987). Of all the forms of support, the most easily quantifiable-the monetary assistance offered by parties to Congressional campaigns--appears at first glance to be the least significant. The Republican incumbent in 1984 received only six percent of his or her funding from all party sources, while Democratic incumbents received an average of one percent.l The reasons for the limitations on party financial support are well-known; parties now have to compete with PACs for contributors' dollars, and campaign finance laws have placed a ceiling on party contributions. Yet we should not be quick to dismiss the party committees' monetary contributions as unimportant. Party committees have become quite adept at identifying and exploiting loopholes in campaign finance law (Salmore and Salmore 1985: 53-56; Jacobson, 1985: 154-57). In addition, party contributions may have a multiplier effect; PACs may use party contributions as a guide for selecting recipients of their own largess (Jacobson 1980: 96; Owen and Herrnson 1983). The higher levels of party financial contributions witnessed during the eighties should therefore taken seriously despite their obvious limits. National parties are emerging in congressional politics in a second way. Occurring at roughly the same time as the organizational growth of parties outside Congress has been an increase in the cohesion of parties as voting blocs inside Congress. The most familiar measure of party cohesion-the average party unity score as computed by Congressional Quarterlyrose for House Democrats from a low point of 70 in 1972 to 82 in 1983 and 81 in 1984, the highest levels since 1965. The average House Republican party unity score