Abstract
The nonpartisan municipal ballot is one of several turn-of-the-century reforms intended to weaken political parties. Through its effects on individuals' political contexts and voting experiences, it might have contributed to the twentieth-century decline in public support for political parties. This paper tests this hypothesis with items available in the 1980 CPS presidential election survey augmented with a ballot form variable. There are no significant differences in measures of party support among residents of partisan and nonpartisan communities, and thus no measurable evidence that nonpartisan elections discouraged the public from supporting political parties.
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This is a revised version of a paper delivered at the XIII World Congress of the International Political Science Association, Paris, July 1985.
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Cassel, C.A. The nonpartisan ballot and the decline of American parties: A contextual effect?. Polit Behav 9, 246–256 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00988614
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00988614
Keywords
- Form Variable
- Political Party
- Contextual Effect
- Public Support
- Presidential Election