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Party Platforms: The Measurement of a Dualism in a Moving Consensus

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Date Issued:
1968
Summary:
The theory of a dualism in a moving consensus, as a covariance in the party's outlook on major governmental issues, is explained in the introduction of the paper. It is illustrated by the most noteworthy example, the convergence in attitudes of both parties on the importance of governmental aid in economic And social areas after the Great Depression. The importance of developing parallel examples of interparty dualism on other issues is presented as the goal of the paper. The utility of the party platforms as the most suitable continuous documents available for the measurement of issue covariance is supported by a brief description of their historical background and the political processes involved in their completion . It is proposed that with the party leadership determining the process of their adoption, they are the best indicators of party attitude on major issues. Three platform hypotheses are presented to test the dualism theory. The first hypothesis tests the covariance of subject matter which each party develops in the major issue areas of the platforms, to prove that they are in agreement on the importance of the same problems. The test of the second hypothesis requires the proof of a similar covariance of attitude toward these issues. The third hypothesis is a test to eliminate the factor of being in or out of power as the prime determinant of a party's attitude toward major issues, rather than the dualism in a moving consensus which slowly changes a party's outlook. The background and methodology of content analysis is developed to show its application to the first hypothesis. The coding of the units of content on six major issue areas and their subsequent statistical correlation validated this hypothesis on the covariance of subject matter in the platform8. The technique of the Q-sort is explained as a measurement of party attitudes on the issues of Big Government and Interventionism. Correlation of Q-sort data from both parties on these issues did not support the second hypothesis. The data failed to show a dualism in party attitude similar to that found in subject matter. When the third hypothesis was tested by Q-sorting it was rejected because it indicated that a covariation of attitude toward the two issues is correlated with the parties' change in control of the presidency. It is therefore concluded that the theory of a dualism in a moving consensus does not extend itself to cover the issues tested . Instead it was indicated that the condition of being in or out of power is the main fa ctor in the formation of party attitude on the issues.
Title: Party Platforms: The Measurement of a Dualism in a Moving Consensus.
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Name(s): Elliott, Eric E.
Huckshorn, Robert J., Thesis advisor
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Department of Political Science
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Date Created: 1968
Date Issued: 1968
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 74 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: The theory of a dualism in a moving consensus, as a covariance in the party's outlook on major governmental issues, is explained in the introduction of the paper. It is illustrated by the most noteworthy example, the convergence in attitudes of both parties on the importance of governmental aid in economic And social areas after the Great Depression. The importance of developing parallel examples of interparty dualism on other issues is presented as the goal of the paper. The utility of the party platforms as the most suitable continuous documents available for the measurement of issue covariance is supported by a brief description of their historical background and the political processes involved in their completion . It is proposed that with the party leadership determining the process of their adoption, they are the best indicators of party attitude on major issues. Three platform hypotheses are presented to test the dualism theory. The first hypothesis tests the covariance of subject matter which each party develops in the major issue areas of the platforms, to prove that they are in agreement on the importance of the same problems. The test of the second hypothesis requires the proof of a similar covariance of attitude toward these issues. The third hypothesis is a test to eliminate the factor of being in or out of power as the prime determinant of a party's attitude toward major issues, rather than the dualism in a moving consensus which slowly changes a party's outlook. The background and methodology of content analysis is developed to show its application to the first hypothesis. The coding of the units of content on six major issue areas and their subsequent statistical correlation validated this hypothesis on the covariance of subject matter in the platform8. The technique of the Q-sort is explained as a measurement of party attitudes on the issues of Big Government and Interventionism. Correlation of Q-sort data from both parties on these issues did not support the second hypothesis. The data failed to show a dualism in party attitude similar to that found in subject matter. When the third hypothesis was tested by Q-sorting it was rejected because it indicated that a covariation of attitude toward the two issues is correlated with the parties' change in control of the presidency. It is therefore concluded that the theory of a dualism in a moving consensus does not extend itself to cover the issues tested . Instead it was indicated that the condition of being in or out of power is the main fa ctor in the formation of party attitude on the issues.
Identifier: FA00012586 (IID)
Degree granted: Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1968.
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Subject(s): Political parties--United States
Popular fronts
Political psychology
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Sublocation: Digital Library
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00012586
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Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.