One of the most important developments in southern politics in recent years has been the increase in the number of whites holding Republican Party identifications. This article examines the effects of racial attitudes on changing levels of partisanship. Specifically, the article focuses on the concept of racial resentment or symbolic racism. This is an appropriate concept to examine the effects of the contemporary racial attitudes on partisanship, as racial issues have become much more diffuse in nature. It is argued that in the 1990s the southern Republican congressional leadership was especially successful in making salient issues likely to activate the racial resentment of southern whites. A multivariate analysis demonstrates that racial resentment was not a strong or significant predictor of partisanship prior to 1994; however, in 1994 and 2000 racial resentment had a large and significant effect on partisanship. These findings suggest that race and racial attitudes continue to shape southern party politics in the early twenty-first century.
Abramowitz, Alan I. and Kyle L. Saunders (1998) ‘Ideological Realignment in the U.S. Electorate’ , Journal of Politics60: 634-652 .
2.
Abramowitz, Alan I. , Susan H. Allen , H. Gibbs Knotts and Kyle L. Saunders (2002) ‘Racial Attitudes, Ideology, and the Rise of Republican Identification Among Southern Whites, 1982-2000’ . Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, MA.
3.
Aistrup, Joseph A. (1996) The Southern Strategy Revisited: Republican Top-Down Advancement in the South. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky .
4.
Applebome, Peter (1996) Dixie Rising: How the South is Shaping American Values, Politics and Culture. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace .
5.
Ashford, Nigel (1998) ‘The Republican Policy Agenda and the Conservative Movement’, in Dean McSweeney and John E. Owens (eds) The Republican Takeover of Congress. New York: St. Martin’s Press .
6.
Bartels, Larry M. (2000) ‘Partisanship and Voting Behavior, 1952-1996’ , American Journal of Political Science44: 35-50 .
7.
Beachler, Donald W. (2000) ‘A Tale of Two Decades: Southern House Elections in the 1980s and 1990s’ , Southeastern Political Review28: 353-369 .
8.
Beck, Paul Allen (1977) ‘Partisan Dealignment in the Postwar South’ , American Political Science Review71: 477-498 .
9.
Berard, Stanley P. and David W. Rohde (1998) ‘What You See is... Essentially... What You Get: House Races in the Contemporary South’ . Paper presented at the Biennial Citadel Symposium on Southern Politics, Charleston, SC.
10.
Black, Earl and Merle Black (1987) Politics and Society in the South. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
11.
Black, Earl and Merle Black (1992) The Vital South. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
12.
Black, Earl and Merle Black (2002) The Rise of Southern Republicans. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press .
13.
Brewer, Mark D. and Jeffrey M. Stonecash (2001) ‘Class, Race Issues, and Declining White Support for the Democratic Party in the South’ , Political Behavior23: 131-155 .
14.
Bullock, Charles S. III (1988) ‘Regional Realignment from an Officeholding Perspective’ , Journal of Politics50: 553-574 .
15.
Bullock, Charles S. III , Ronald Keith Gaddie and Donna R. Hoffman (2002) ‘The Consolidation of the White Southern Congressional Vote’ . Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, MA.
16.
Burnham, Walter Dean (1996) ‘Realignment Lives: The 1994 Earthquake and Its Implications’, in Colin Campbell and Bert A. Rockman (eds) The Clinton Presidency: First Appraisals. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House .
17.
Campbell, Angus , Philip E. Converse , Warren E. Miller and Donald E. Stokes (1960) The American Voter. New York: John Wiley and Sons .
18.
Campbell, Angus , Philip E. Converse , Warren E. Miller and Donald E. Stokes (1966) Elections and the Political Order. New York: John Wiley and Sons .
19.
Campbell, Bruce A. (1977a) ‘Change in the Southern Electorate’ , American Journal of Political Science21: 37-64 .
20.
Campbell, Bruce A. (1977b) ‘Patterns of Change in the Partisan Loyalties of Native Southerners: 1952-1972’ , Journal of Politics39: 730-761 .
21.
Canon, David T. (1992) ‘The Emergence of the Republican Party in the South, from 1964-1988’, in Allan D. Hertzke and Ronald M. Peters, Jr. (eds) The Atomistic Congress. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe .
22.
Carmines, Edward G. and James A. Stimson (1989) Issue Evolution - Race and Transformation of American Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press .
23.
Carter, Dan T. (1996) From George Wallace to Newt Gingrich: Race in the Conservative Counterrevolution, 1963-1994. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press .
24.
Converse, Phillip E. (1966) ‘On the Possibility of Major Political Realignment in the South’, in Angus Campbell , Philip E. Converse , Warren E. Miller and Donald E. Stokes (eds) Elections and the Political Order. New York: John Wiley and Sons .
25.
Edsall, Thomas R. and Mary D. Edsall (1992) Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics. New York: Norton .
26.
Frymer, Paul (1996) ‘The 1994 Electoral Aftershock: Dealignment or Realignment in the South’, in Philip A. Klinkner (ed.) Midterm: The Elections of 1994 in Context. Boulder, CO: Westview Press .
27.
Glaser, James M. (1996) Race, Campaign Politics, and the Realignment in the South. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press .
28.
Glaser, James M. (1994) ‘Back to the Black Belt: Racial Environment and White Racial Attitudes in the South’ , Journal of Politics56: 21-41 .
29.
Hill, Kevin A. (1995) ‘Does the Creation of Majority Black Districts Aid Republicans? An Analysis of the 1992 Congressional Elections in Eight Southern States’ , Journal of Politics57: 384-401 .
30.
Hill, Kevin A. and Nicol C. Rae (2000) ‘What Happened to the Democrats in the South? US House Elections, 1992-1996’ , Party Politics6: 5-22 .
31.
Howell, Susan E. (1994) ‘Racism, Cynicism, Economics and David Duke’ , American Politics Quarterly22: 190-207 .
32.
Howell, Susan E. and Sylvia Warren (1992) ‘Public Opinion and David Duke’, in Douglas Rose (ed.) The Emergence of David Duke and the Politics of Race. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press .
33.
Huckfeldt Robert and Carol Weitzel Kohfeld (1989) Race and the Decline of Class in American Politics. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press .
34.
Jacobson, Gary C. (1996) ‘The 1994 House Elections in Perspective’ , Political Science Quarterly111: 203-223 .
35.
Keith, Bruce E. , David B. Magleby , Candice J. Nelson , Elizabeth Orr , Mark C. Westyle and Raymond E. Wolfinger (1992) The Myth of the Independent Voter. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press .
36.
Key, V. O. Jr. (1949) Southern Politics in State and Nation. New York: Alfred A. Knopf .
37.
Key, V. O. Jr. (1959) ‘Secular Realignment and the Party System’ , Journal of Politics21: 198-210 .
38.
Kinder, Donald R. and Lynn M. Sanders (1996) Divided by Color: Racial Politics and Democratic Ideals. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press .
39.
Kinder, Donald R. and David O. Sears (1981) ‘Prejudice and Politics: Symbolic Racism versus Racial Threats to the Good Life’ , Journal of Personality and Social-Psychology40: 414-431 .
40.
Kuklinski, James H. , Michael D. Cobb and Martin Gilens (1997) ‘Racial Attitudes and the “New South” ’ , Journal of Politics59: 323-349 .
41.
Ladd, Everett Carll and Charles D. Hadley (1978) Transformations of the American Party System. New York: W. W. Norton .
42.
Ladd, Everett Carll (1995) ‘The 1994 Congressional Elections: The Postindustrial Realignment Continues’ , Political Science Quarterly110: 1-23 .
43.
Lamis, Alexander P. (1990) The Two-Party South. Expanded rev. edn.New York: Oxford University Press .
44.
Lamis, Alexander P. (ed.) (1999) Southern Politics in the 1990s. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press .
45.
McConahay, John B. and J. C. Hough (1976) ‘Symbolic Racism’ , Journal of Social Issues32: 23-46 .
46.
Miller, Warren E. and J. Merrill Shanks (1996) The New American Voter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
47.
Nadeau, Richard and Harold W. Stanley (1993) ‘Class Polarization in the Partisan-ship of Native Southern Whites’ , American Journal of Political Science37: 900-919 .
48.
Nadeau, Richard and Harold W. Stanley (1997) ‘Age and Partisanship, 1952-1992’, in Robert P. Steed , Laurence W. Morleand and Tod A. Baker (eds) Southern Parties and Elections: Studies in Regional Change. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press .
49.
Nie, Norman H. , Sidney Verba and John R. Petrocik (1979) The Changing American Voter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
50.
Petrocik, John R. (1987) ‘Realignment: New Party Coalitions and the Nationalization of the South’ , Journal of Politics49: 347-375 .
51.
Petrocik, John R. and Scott W. Desposato (1998) ‘The Partisan Consequences of Majority-Minority Redistricting in the South, 1992 and 1994’ , Journal of Politics60: 613-633 .
52.
Prysby, Charles L. (2000) ‘Southern Congressional Elections, 1992-1998’ , American Review of Politics21: 155-177 .
53.
Schuman, Howard and Lawrence Bobo (1988) ‘Survey-Based Experiments on White Racial Attitudes toward Residential Integration’ , American Journal of Sociology94: 273-299 .
54.
Schuman, Howard , Charlotte Steer and Lawrence Bobo (1985) Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
55.
Sears, David O. (1988) ‘Symbolic Racism’, in Phyllis Katz and Dalmas A. Taylor (eds) Eliminating Racism: Profiles in Controversey. New York: Plenum .
56.
Sears, David O. , Jack Citrin and Rick Kosterman (1987) ‘Jesse Jackson and the Southern White Electorate’, in Laurence W. Moreland , Robert P. Steed and Tod A. Baker (eds) Blacks in Southern Politics. New York: Praeger .
57.
Sears, David O. and Donald R. Kinder (1971) ‘Racial Tensions and Voting in Los Angeles’, in Werner Z. Hirsch (ed.) Los Angeles: Viability and Prospects for Metropolitan Leadership. New York: Praeger .
58.
Shafer, Byron E. (1998) ‘The Mid-Term Election of 1994: Upheaval in Search of Framework’, in Dean McSweeney and John E. Owens (eds) The Republican Takeover of Congress. New York: St. Martin’s Press .
59.
Shaffer, Stephen D. , Stacie Berry Pierce and Steven A. Kohnke (2000) ‘Party Realignment in the South: A Multi-Level Analysis’ , American Review of Politics21: 129-153 .
60.
Sniderman, Paul M. and Thomas Piazza (1993) The Scar of Race. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
61.
Sniderman, Paul M. and Philip E. Tetlock (1986) ‘Symbolic Racism: Problems of Motive Attribution in Political Analysis’ , Journal of Social Issues42: 129-150 .
62.
Sniderman, Paul M. with Michael G. Hagen (1985) Race and Inequality: A Study in American Values. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House .
63.
Stanley, Harold W. (1988) ‘Southern Partisan Changes: Dealignment, Realignment Or Both?’Journal of Politics50: 65-88 .
64.
Stanley, Harold W. and David S. Castle (1988) ‘Partisan Change in the South: Making Sense of Scholarly Dissonance’, in Robert H. Swansbrough and David M. Brodsky (eds) The South’s New Politics: Realignment and Dealignment. Colombia, SC: University of South Carolina Press .
65.
Stanley, Harold W. and Richard Niemi (2001) ‘Partisanship, Party Coalitions, and Group Support, 1952-2000’ . Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, CA.
66.
Strong, Donald S. (1971) ‘Further Reflections on Southern Politics’ , Journal of Politics33: 239-256 .
67.
Sundquist, James L. (1983) Dynamics of the Party System: Alignment and Realignment of Political Parties in the United States, rev. edn.Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution .
68.
Thielemann, Gregory S. (1992) ‘The Rise and Stall of Southern Republicans in Congress’ , Social Science Quarterly73: 123-135 .
69.
Tuch, Steven A. (1987) ‘Urbanism, Region, and Tolerance Revisited: The Case of Racial Prejudice’ , American Sociological Review52: 504-510 .
70.
Watson, Stanley J. (1996) ‘Race and Realignment Reconsidered: Issue Evolution in the South Since 1972’ , American Review of Politics17: 145-170 .
71.
Wolfinger, Raymond and Robert B. Arseneau (1978) ‘Partisan Change in the South, 1952-1976’, in Louis Maisel and Joseph Cooper (eds) Political Parties: Development and Decay. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage .
72.
Wood, Jeremy (1994) ‘Is “Symbolic Racism” Racism? A Review Informed by Intergroup Behavior’ , Political Psychology15: 673-686 .
73.
Wright, Gerald C. Jr. (1977) ‘Contextual Models of Electoral Behavior: The Southern Wallace Vote’ , American Political Science Review71: 497-508 .
