Daniel Peter Klinghard
College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, MA 01610-2395)
FB-52443-06
Fellowships for College Teachers and Independent Scholars
Research Programs
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[Grant products][Media coverage]
Totals:
$40,000 (approved)
$40,000 (awarded)
Grant period:
6/1/2006 – 5/31/2007
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The Nationalization of American Party Organizations, 1880-1900
During the late nineteenth century, the Democratic and Republican parties transformed their organizational capacities, and became more competent institutions. This change has gone unnoticed and unexplained by political science. Instead, party change over time has been defined by the paradigm of "party decline." But what political scientists describe as "decline" is really a departure from the Jacksonian norm, and the result of a deliberate internal reform of the Jacksonian party model. This transformation was designed to assert national party control over sub-national party organizations. The result was a more nationally-oriented party system and enhanced capacities for the parties to achieve national policy change.
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