The Meaning of Party Images

Abstract

PARTY Identification is a concept which political scientists have studied in great detail over past several decades. But one aspect of party identification which has not received much attention has been meaning of party images to people. When individuals think of Democratic or Republican parties, what images come into their minds? How do these images form? And what relationship, if any, do these images have with issue positions which people have? Two previous studies looked briefly at this issue. Trilling (1976), in his book, Party Image and Electoral Behavior, traces meaning of party from 1952 to 1972. He classifies people as to whether or not they see parties in terms of people in party, as managers of government, broad philosophy, or domestic or foreign policy positions. He found that there was only a limited effect of short term political on images that people held. This, he argues, reflects the failure of political parties to polarize electorate around these (p. 88). Thus, issues such as race or Vietnam may have short-term impact on images of parties, but they have not penetrated more deeply. (Chapter 4 of book discusses meaning of party images.) Similarly, Wattenberg (1986), in The Decline of American Political Parties, 1952-1984, discusses changes in images of parties between 1950s and 1980s. His conclusion is that major change has been a decline in any kind of image for either party. He writes: sum, neither party now has a very firmly entrenched positive or negative public image on such issues [as economic/welfare policy] compared to two decades ago (p. 69). Craig (1985, 1987), however, has challenged these conclusions. He argues that decline of party is better attributed to a negative view of two parties rather than growing neutrality cited by Wattenberg. The purpose of this paper is to take this discussion further. The content of people's opinions about politics is an important, but overlooked area of study. As shown below, images that people have of parties affects ability of parties to structure political conflict. A change or decline in such images has, therefore, strong implications for way we interpret trends in partisanship. And evidence offered below supports Wattenberg's interpretation of party decline. In order to understand fully decline of partisanship and what it implies, we need to