The Role of Candidates, Districts, and Campaign Strategies in Determining Party Behavior

Abstract

Abstract This chapter develops a framework of party behavior that focuses on how district-level legislative campaigns influence the behavior of national parties. In a departure from much of the literature, the text argues that parties’ electoral behavior is significantly determined by candidates who are constrained by their personal characteristics and the demographics of their districts when shaping their campaign strategies. Using ethnic parties as an exemplar of niche, policy-seeking parties, the chapter contends that some campaign strategies are inherently conflictual with niche-party goals, resulting in party behavior that does not always reflect the niche focus of the party. Certain candidate characteristics—such as experience with party leadership and access to resources—combined with district characteristics—such as the level of partisan support—generate conditions under which candidates benefit from campaigning on the basis of their personal characteristics and clientelism, rather than their party platform. The result is that, in the aggregate, the ethnic party ultimately sacrifices its niche policy-making goals for the sake of campaign strategies that make legislative candidates more electorally viable in their districts.