Bifurcated Politics: Evolution and Reform in the National Party Convention

Byron E. Shafer

Published by Harvard University Press 1988

Bifurcated Politics

Evolution and Reform in the National Party Convention

Byron E. Shafer

In the series A Russell Sage Foundation Study

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674421622

Overview
Contents

About this book

Even today, when it is often viewed as an institution in decline, the national party convention retains a certain raw, emotional, populist fascination. Bifurcated Politics is a portrait of the postwar convention as a changing institution—a changing institution that still confirms the single most important decision in American politics. With the 1988 elections clearly in mind, Byron E. Shafer examines the status of the national party convention, which is created and dispersed within a handful of days but nevertheless becomes a self-contained world for participants, reporters, and observers alike. He analyzes such dramatic developments as the disappearance of the contest over the presidential nomination and its replacement by struggles over the publicizing of various campaigns, the decline of party officials and the rise of the organized interests, and the large and growing disjunction between what is happening at the convention hall and what the public sees—between the convention on site and the convention on screen. He argues that, despite its declining status, the postwar convention has attracted—and mirrored—most of the major developments in postwar politics: the nationalization of that politics and the spread of procedural reform, a changing connection between the general public and political institutions, even the coming of a new and different sort of American politics. Bifurcated Politics tells the story of most of the postwar conventions, along with the nominating campaigns that preceded them. But it also develops a picture of the changing American politics around those stories. It will become the definitive study of the national party convention.

Author information

Shafer Byron E. :

Byron E. Shafer is Glenn B. and Cleone Orr Hawkins Chair of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Reviews

At once, this book provides us with an intelligent and closely argued analysis of the causes of the declining role of nominating conventions, an overall theoretical concept that ties together its main argument (the notion of bifurcated politics), and an analysis of the larger fabric of contemporary American politics as seen through the 'window' of the convention. An ambitious and comprehensive guide to the protean world of presidential selection.

Bifurcated Politics is a fresh and penetrating examination of the national party convention during four decades of fundamental change in the party system. With striking skill and insight, Shafer has written an exemplary institutional analysis, moving from the interplay of altered environmental forces and deliberate 'reform' to the ascendancy of organized interests and of the mass media inherent in the weakening political parties. Above all, the book looks at the convention and through it to the changing national politics surrounding it—a rare and valuable contribution to understanding and to constructive reflection.

Byron Shafer has achieved the improbable: this new work of intellectually exciting scholarship excels his landmark Quiet Revolution. A brilliant case study of how purposive political action brings about unintended political and social consequences.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction. National Party Conventions in American Politics: The Attractions of the Convention Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Nomination and the Convention: An Informal Disappearance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	6
2. Institutionalizing the Disappearance: The Nomination after Reform Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	40
3. Changing Contours of Delegate Selection: The Decline of the Official Party Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
4. The Rise of the Organized Interests: An Alternative Base for Delegate Selection Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
5. The Convention and the Election: The Structure of Conflict inside the Hall Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
6. Recurring Struggles over Tangible Products: Traditional Activities in the Reformed Convention Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
7. The Struggle over the Mediated Convention: Televised Coverage and Public Perception Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	226
8. Coverage Levels and Institutional Character: The Coming of the Bifurcated Convention Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	260
Conclusion. Evolution and Reform: The Convention and a Changing American Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	290
Afterword Evolution. and Reform beyond 1988: The Future of the National Party Convention Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	326
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	349
Acknowledgments and Project History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	377
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	385

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Reprint 2014
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 391
Illustrations
- Other: illustrations
Keywords: Political conventions -- United States.; Republican National Convention.; Democratic National Convention.; POLITICAL SCIENCE / General

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674421622

Hardcover

Published: February 5, 1988
ISBN: 9780674421615