Debate about the decline and revival of American political parties proceeds unabated in political science. Related to this debate is the attempt to link electoral outcomes with party organizational activity. A continuing impediment to resolving this conflict is the asymmetry in our ability to measure the two central concepts. While standard measures of electoral success and partisan competition abound, measures of party organization are less abundant. Although the methods introduced by the authors of the Party Transformation Study (PTS) for measuring party organizational strength have been influential, their survey-based technique has greater utility for some purposes than for others. We argue for the use of state party archives as a means for gathering the data necessary for building appropriate measures of party organization. We demonstrate the utility of this approach by linking data gathered in a pilot study of three such archives to the PTS framework.
Appleton, Andrew (1995) `Formal and Informal Modes of Party Organization: The Internal Dynamics of French Political Parties', in K. Lawson (ed.) How Parties Work: Perspectives From Within. New York: Praeger.
2.
Appleton, Andrew and Ward, Daniel S. (1993) `Party Transformation in France and the United States: The Hierarchical Effects of System Change in Comparative Perspective', Comparative Politics26: 69-98.
3.
Appleton, Andrew and Ward, Daniel S. (1994a) `Understanding Organizational Innovation and Party-Building', in D. Shea and J. Green (eds) The State of the Parties. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
4.
Appleton, Andrew and Ward, Daniel S. (1994b) `Party Organizational Response to Electoral Change: Texas and Arkansas', American Review of Politics (special issue).
5.
Appleton, Andrew and Ward, Daniel S. (1995) `Using Party Records in the Study of Organization: A Survey of State Party Archives', State and Local Government Review27(1).
6.
Bibby, John F. , Cotter, Cornelius, Gibson, James and Huckshorn, Robert (1983a) `Parties in State Politics', in V. Gray, H. Jacob and K. Vines (eds) Politics in the American States, 4th edn.Boston: Little, Brown.
7.
Bibby, John F. , Gibson, James, Cotter, Cornelius and Huckshorn, Robert (1983b) `Trends in Party Organizational Strength, 1960-1980', International Political Science Review4: 21-28.
8.
Black, Earl and Black, Merle (1987) Politics and Society in the South. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
9.
Burnham, Walter Dean (1982) The Current Crisis in American Politics. New York: Oxford University Press.
10.
Burrell, Barbara C. (1986) `Local Political Party Committees, Task Performance and Organizational Vitality', Western Political Quaterly39: 48-66.
11.
Cassie, William E. (1993) `The Development of Two Party Competition in the South: The Role of Party Organization', paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, 2-5 September.
12.
Coleman, John (1993) `The Resurgence of Party Organization? A Dissent From the New Orthodoxy', paper prepared for presentation at the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics conference, `The State of the Parties: 1992 and Beyond', Akron, OH, 23-24 September.
13.
Cotter, Cornelius and Bibby, John (1980) `Institutional Development of Parties and the Thesis of Party Decline', Political Science Quarterly95: 1-27.
14.
Cotter, Cornelius , Gibson, James, Bibby, John and Huckshorn, Robert (1989) Party Organizations in American Politics. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
15.
Crotty, William , ed. (1986) Political Parties in Local Areas. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
16.
Crotty, William (1991) `Political Parties: Issues and Trends', in William Crotty (ed.) Political Science: Looking to the Future. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
17.
Epstein, Leon (1986) Political Parties in the American Mold. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
18.
Fiorina, Morris (1990) `The Electorate in the Voting Booth', in L. Sandy Maisel (ed.) The Parties Respond: Changes in the American Party System. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
19.
Frantzich, Stephen (1989) Political Parties in the Technological Age. New York: Longman.
20.
Frendreis, John P. , Gibson, James and Vertz, Laura (1990) `The Electoral Relevance of Local Party Organizations', American Political Science Review84: 225-235.
21.
Gibson, James L. and Scarrow, Susan (1993) `State and Local Party Organizations in American Politics', in Eric Uslaner (ed.) American Political Parties: A Reader. Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock Publishers.
22.
Gibson, James L. , Cotter, Cornelius, Bibby, John and Huckshorn, Robert (1985) `Whither the Local Parties? A Cross Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis of the Strength of Party Organization', American Journal of Political Science29: 139-161.
23.
Gibson, James L. , Cotter, Cornelius, Bibby, John and Huckshorn, Robert (1983) `Assessing Party Organizational Strength', American Journal of Political Science27: 193-222.
24.
Gibson, James L. , Frendreis, John and Vertz, Laura (1989) `Party Dynamics in the 1980s: Change in County Organizational Strength, 1980-1984', American Journal of Political Science33: 67-90.
25.
Harmel, Robert and Janda, Kenneth (1992) `An Integrated Theory of Party Goals and Party Change', paper prepared for delivery at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, The Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, 3-6 September.
26.
Harmel, Robert , Janda, Kenneth, Heo, Uk and Tan, Alexander (1993) `Performance, Leadership, Factions, and Party Change: An Empirical Analysis', paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, 2-5 September.
27.
Herrnson, Paul S. (1986) `Do Parties Make a Difference?: The Role of Party Organizations in Congressional Elections.'Journal of Politics48: 589-615.
28.
Herrnson, Paul S. (1988) Party Campaigning in the 1980s. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
29.
Huckshorn, Robert , Cotter, Cornelius, Bibby, John and Gibson, James (1986) `Party Integration and Party Organizational Strength', Journal of Politics48: 976-991.
30.
Janda, Kenneth (1980) Political Parties: A Cross-National Survey. New York: The Free Press.
31.
Janda, Kenneth (1983) `Cross-National Measures of Party Organizations and Organizational Theory', European Journal of Political Research11: 319-332.
32.
Katz, Richard S. and Mair, Peter (1990) `The Official Story: A Framework for the Comparative Study of Party Organization and Organizational Change', paper prepared for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco.
33.
Katz, Richard S. and Mair, Peter, eds (1992) Party Organizations: A Data Handbook on Party Organizations in Western Democracies, 1960-90. London: Sage.
34.
Lane, Jan-Erik and Ersson, Svante (1987) Politics and Society in Western Europe. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
35.
Lawson, Kay , ed. (1995) How Parties Work: Perspectives From Within. New York: Praeger Publishers.
36.
Margolis, Michael and Resnick, David (1993) `Local Political Parties and Decentering of American Urban Politics', paper prepared for presentation at the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics conference, `The State of the Parties: 1992 and Beyond', Akron, OH, 23-24 September.
37.
Mayhew, David R. (1986) Placing Parties in American Politics: Organization, Electoral Settings, and Government Activity in the Twentieth Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
38.
McGlennon, John (1993) `Party Activity and Party Success: Southern Precinct Leaders and the Evaluation of Party Strength', paper prepared for presentation at the 1993 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, 3-6 September.
39.
Nie, Norman, Verba, Sidney and Petrocik, John (1979) The Changing American Voter, 2nd edn.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
40.
Panebianco, Angelo (1988) Political Parties: Organization and Power. New York: Cambridge University Press.
41.
Pomper, Gerald M. (1990) `Party Organization and Electoral Success', Polity23: 187-206.
42.
Pride, Richard (1970) Origins of Democracy: A Cross-National Study of Mobilization, Party Systems, and Democratic Stability. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
43.
Ranney, Austin (1976) `Parties in State Politics', in H. Jacob and K. Vines (eds) Politics in the American States, 3rd edn.Boston: Little, Brown.
44.
Reichley, A. James (1992) The Life of the Parties: A History of American Political Parties. New York: The Free Press.
45.
Reif, Karl-Heinz , ed. (1985) Ten European Elections: Campaigns and Results of the 1979/81 First Direct Elections to the European Parliament. Brookfield, VT: Gower.
46.
Rohde, David W. (1991) Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
47.
Schlesinger, Joseph (1991) Political Parties and the Winning of Office. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
48.
Selle, Per and Svåsand, Lars (1991) `Membership in Party Organizations and the Problem of the Decline of Parties', Comparative Political Studies23: 459-477.
49.
Ward, Daniel S. (1993) `The Continuing Search for Party Influence in Congress: A View From the Committees', Legislative Studies Quarterly18: 211-230.
50.
Wattenberg, Martin P. (1990) The Decline of American Political Parties 1952-1988. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
51.
Wekkin, Gary D. (1984) `National-State Party Relations: The Democrats' New Federal Structure', Political Science Quarterly99: 45-72.
52.
Wekkin, Gary D. (1985) `Political Parties and Intergovernmental Relations in 1984: The Consequence of Party Renewal for Territorial Constituencies', Publius15: 19-37.
53.
Wellhofer, E. Spencer (1979) `The Effectiveness of Party Organization: A Cross-National Time-Series Analysis', European Journal for Political Research7: 205-225.
