Small Power: How Local Parties Shape Elections by David Doherty, Conor M Dowling and Michael G Miller

Abstract

So much media and political analyses center on political parties’ national leaders that officials at the grassroots get overlooked. But in Small Power's introduction, the authors emphasize that local parties are the “‘faces’ of the Democratic and Republican parties” (4), and “local party elites are involved in myriad electorally consequential activities” (5). In part one, the political scientists synthesize local party organization, especially how chairs are chosen, their demographics, and political activities. Through interviews and surveys, Doherty et al. stress that local chairs “have important responsibilities when it comes to executing electoral strategies. They set strategic priorities during their term, raise and spend money, and delegate tasks to subordinate members of the county unit” (15). These surveys led to a 20 percent response rate or 626 Democratic and 388 Republican chairs (18). Age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, and income demographics of chairs were compared by Doherty et al. Ultimately, there was an “over-representation of males” (32), and “chairs from both parties are far less racially diverse than the general public” (34).