Political Scientists and the Republican National Conventions

Abstract

During the early 1960s, political scientists were afforded an opportunity to serve as participant-observers at both national party conventions under the convention fellowship program of the old National Center for Education in Politics (NCEP). With NCEP sponsorship, political scientists attached themselves to state delegations, convention committees and candidate organizations to observe at first hand the work of the conventions. A significant segment of our knowledge of conventions was derived from the writing of these NCEP fellows (see, for example, Paul Tillet, editor, Inside Politics: The National Party Conventions, 1960, which was cited frequently in the early editions of such standard texts as Polsby and Wildavsky's Presidential Elections. The NCEP fellows' work also provided a basis for more sophisticated research. Although the NCEP has lapsed, its national convention and national committee fellowship programs resulted in continuing participation by political scientists at Republican national conventions.Involvement at the staff level in Republican conventions by political scientists has been most extensive in the work of the Committee on Resolutions (Platform). Arthur L. Peterson, formerly of Ohio Wesleyan University and now Dean at Eckard College, was a key staff member (Executive Director in 1964, 1968, 1972) of the Platform Committees between 1960 and 1976.