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3 - The Unstable Party Equilibrium, 1877–1896

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2009

Alan Ware
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

One important respect in which the task facing the Democrats after 1877 was similar to the one that had faced them in the 1840s was that the winning of majorities at the national level was primarily achieved by the mobilization of their own loyal voters. Both parties had large numbers of devoted supporters, while the number of potential voters who had no underlying party loyalty was relatively small. In a sense, therefore, both parties had viable electoral coalitions in place – what they had to do was try to prevent those coalitions from fragmenting. In part, this emphasis on “keeping their own troops together” was facilitated by the fact that the party coalitions were of similar sizes nationally – a point that is analyzed further during the course of this chapter.

Continuity between pre-war and post-war politics is also clear from an examination of the sources of the two major parties' support. It was not the Civil War itself that had modified the patterns of voter support but the earlier partisan division over the extension of slavery into the territories. When the Republican Party contested its first presidential election in 1856, the “shape” of the Democratic coalition that would have to be mobilized in the late 1870s was already revealed. The war and other factors subsequently changed it a little, but what is surprising about voter support in 1856 is just how much it corresponds with the pattern of support later.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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