A01=Daniel J. Galvin
Activism
Adviser
African Americans
Author_Daniel J. Galvin
Barack Obama
Bill Brock
Bill Clinton
Calculation
Campaign finance
Campaign finance in the United States
Campaign manager
Category=JPA
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Category=JPL
Chairman
Citizens (Spanish political party)
College Republicans
Committee
Conventional wisdom
Democratic National Committee
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Ed Gillespie
Electoral College (United States)
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eq_isMigrated=2
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eq_society-politics
Executive director
Fifty-state strategy
Funding
General election
George Bush
George H. W. Bush
George W. Bush
Governing (magazine)
Grassroots
Howard Dean
Human capital
Inauguration
Incumbent
Infrastructure
Jimmy Carter
John F. Kennedy
Lee Atwater
Legislature
Lyndon B. Johnson
Majority
Member of Congress
Midterm election
New Majority (Slovakia)
Newt Gingrich
Nomination
Operation Dixie
Oral history
Party identification
Party leader
Political campaign
Political party
Political science
Politician
Politics
Politics of the United States
Presidency of Bill Clinton
Presidential library
Redistricting
Republican National Committee
Republican Party (United States)
Republicanism
Richard Nixon
Right-wing politics
Rockefeller Republican
Ronald Reagan
Secondary source
Technology
The New York Times
Two-party system
Voter registration
Voting
Product details
- ISBN 9780691136936
- Weight: 482g
- Dimensions: 152 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 11 Oct 2009
- Publisher: Princeton University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Modern presidents are usually depicted as party "predators" who neglect their parties, exploit them for personal advantage, or undercut their organizational capacities. Challenging this view, Presidential Party Building demonstrates that every Republican president since Dwight D. Eisenhower worked to build his party into a more durable political organization while every Democratic president refused to do the same. Yet whether they supported their party or stood in its way, each president contributed to the distinctive organizational trajectories taken by the two parties in the modern era. Unearthing new archival evidence, Daniel Galvin reveals that Republican presidents responded to their party's minority status by building its capacities to mobilize voters, recruit candidates, train activists, provide campaign services, and raise funds. From Eisenhower's "Modern Republicanism" to Richard Nixon's "New Majority" to George W. Bush's hopes for a partisan realignment, Republican presidents saw party building as a means of forging a new political majority in their image.
Though they usually met with little success, their efforts made important contributions to the GOP's cumulative organizational development. Democratic presidents, in contrast, were primarily interested in exploiting the majority they inherited, not in building a new one. Until their majority disappeared during Bill Clinton's presidency, Democratic presidents eschewed party building and expressed indifference to the long-term effects of their actions. Bringing these dynamics into sharp relief, Presidential Party Building offers profound new insights into presidential behavior, party organizational change, and modern American political development.
Daniel J. Galvin is assistant professor of political science at Northwestern University.
