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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 76-24,617 HOWELL, Susan Robinson, 1948- AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES IN A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: A STUDY OF THE 1972 LOCAL CAMPAIGN ACTIVISTS. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1976 Political Science, general Xerox University Microfilms,Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 <S> Copyright by Susan Robinson Howell 1976 I AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES IN A PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: A STUDY OF THE 1972 LOCAL CAMPAIGN ACTIVISTS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Susan Robinson Howell, B.A., M.A. ***** The Ohio State University 1976 Reading Committee: Approved By Professor John H. Kessel Professor Herbert B. Asher Professor C. Richard Hofstetter ___________ / Adviser Department of Political Science To Bill and my parents ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS X am indebted to my advisor, John H. Kessel, for his time spent in editing and reviewing the manuscript and for his continual guidance and encouragement throughout this project. I am also grateful to C. Richard Hofstetter for the use of his data from the Television and Electronic News Project and to the Polimetrics Laboratory at The Ohio State University for its services. iii VITA November 6, 1948..... Born - Cincinnati, Ohio 1969................... B.A., Anderson College Anderson, Indiana 1971-1974............. Research Associate, Polimetrics Laboratory, The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio 1974-197 5 ............. Teaching Associate, Department of Political Science The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio 1975-197 6 ............. Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science University of Cincinnati Cincinnati, Ohio PUBLICATIONS "Political Information: The Effects of System and Individual Character­ istics," Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 8, No. 4 (January, 1976), pp. 413-435. FIELDS OF STUDY American Government: Political Participation and Voting Behavior Public Opinion Congress Public Policy Research Methods Comparative Government: Western Europe Comparative Political Behavior TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS........................................ iii VITA ......... ................................................ iv LIST OF TABLES ........................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES.......................................... x Chapter One: An Introduction to Parties in a Presidential Campaign and the 1972 Campaign Activists . 1 Introduction............................................ 1 The Decentralized American Party System ............... 2 Candidate Organizations and the Regular Party .... 4 The 1972 County Leaders ............................... 9 The Parties as Organizations........................... 20 Study Overview. ........................................ 26 The Data................................................. 29 Chapter Two: Motivations, Consensus, and Obligations. 33 Amateurs and Professionals ........................... 34 Intra-Party Issue Consensus ........................... 44 - • Obligations to the Party............................... 73 Conclusions ............................................ 82 Chapter Three: Communications and Candidate Images. .. 87 Introduction............................................ 87 Communications Channels ............................... 88 Communications Channels and Other Variables .......... 98 Candidate Images.......................................... 108 Candidate Images and Other Variables.................... 118 Conclusions ............................................... 128 v Page Chapter Four: The Issue Agendas: A Summary Measure of Campaign Unity................................... 131 Introduction .......................................... 131 The National Issue Agenda................................ 132 The Local Issue Agendas...................................136 Constituency Influence on the Local Agenda .......... 139 Measuring Deviation from the National Issue Agenda . 142 Organizational Influences................................ 149 Conclusion ..............................................153 Chapter Five: Discussion and Conclusions .................. 158 Introduction ............................................ 158 Dimensions of Decentralization ........................ 158 The Psychological Unity of American Parties........... 162 Comments on Future Research.............................. 169 LIST OF REFERENCES..............................................173 vi LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1.1: Educational Attainment of County Party Leaders: 1961 and 1972 (In Percentages)........... 12 Table 1.2: Variation in the Income of County Party Leaders, 1961 and 1972 (In Percentages)..................13 Table 1.3: Variation in the Occupational Backgrounds of County Party Chairmen, 1958, 1961 and 1972 (In Percentages)............................................ 14 Table 1.4: Political Experience of County Leaders, 1961 and 1972.............................................. 16 Table 1.5: Previous Party and Public Offices Held (In N u m b e r s ) .......................................... 17 Table 1.6: Political Offices Held by 1972 County Leaders During the Campaign (In Numbers). ............... 18 Table 1.7: Political Aspirations of County Leaders......... 19 Table 2.1: Motivations for Involvement in the Campaign. 37 Table 2.2: Amateurs and Professionals Among the 1972 County Campaign Leaders ................................... 40 Table 2.3: Amateurs' and Professionals' Interest in I s s u e s ..................................................... 42 Table 2.4: Amateurs', Semi-Professionals', and Professionals' Interest in Issues ........................ 43 Table 2.5: 1972 County Campaign Leaders' Perceptions of the Candidates' Issue Positions.......................... 46-50 Table 2.6: Perceptions of the Candidates: A Measure of Intra-Party Consensus................................... 53 vii Page Table 2.7: The Issue Positions of the 1972 County Campaign Leaders........... 56-62 Table 2.8: Intra-Party Issue Consensus........................ 66-67 Table 2.9: Median Distances of Activists from Candidate on Issues ........................................ 72 Table 2.10: The Individual Index of Agreement ............. 74 Table 2.11: Obligation to the Party Felt by the 1972 County Campaign Leaders .................................... 77-78 Table 2.12: Correlation Matrix for Obligation Items (Yule's Q ) .......................................... 80 Table 2.13: Guttman Scale of Obligations to the Party Felt by the 1972 County Campaign Leaders........... 81 Table 3.1: Local Party Leaders' Sources of Information About the National Campaign ............................... 91 Table 3.2: Bivariate Relationships Between all Sources of Information......................................92 Table 3.3: Most Important Source of Information About the National Campaign for 1972 County Campaign Leaders .......................................... 94 Table 3.4: Background Characteristics of the County . Campaign Leaders and Communications Channels............. 96-97 Table 3.5: Obligation to Party and Communications Channels..................................................... 100-101 Table 3.6: Agreement with Candidate and Use of Communications Channels ................................... 102 Table 3.7: Amateurism and the Use of Communications Channels..................................................... 103 Table 3.8: Being Within the Issue Consensus and the Use of Communications Channels........................ 104 Table 3.9: Communications Channels and Perceptions