Convergence or Divergence? Do Parties and Outside Groups Spend on the Same Candidates, and Does It Matter? (original) (raw)

Groups and the Party Coalitions: A Network Analysis of Overlapping Donor Lists

2005

How are factions within the two major political parties related to each other? How tightly knit are the two political parties? Are there major structural differences between them? This paper examines the composition of the Democratic and Republican party coalitions by using social network analysis to analyze the contribution patterns of elite donors. I first identify all individual donors who gave over $200 to one of the two major political party committees in the 2003-2004 election cycle. I then trace the contributions that each of those donors made to the most partisan committees and ideological groups. I then convert this two-mode data to a dataset that shows the degree of overlap between each group's donor pool, and conduct a series of exploratory analyses using network analysis techniques. These analyses show that both parties are similar in their degree of centralization, with the party committees being the most central actors in the network. For the Democrats, 527 organi...

Competing for the platform: How organized interests affect party positioning in the United States

2018

What explains which groups are included in a party coalition in any given election cycle? Recent advances in political party theory suggest that policy demanders comprise parties, and that the composition of a party coalition varies from election to election. We theorize three conditions under which parties articulate an interest group's preferred positions in its quadrennial platform: when groups are ideologically proximate to the party median, when groups display party loyalty, and when groups are flush with resources. Using computer-assisted content analysis on a unique and rich data source, we examine three cycles of testimony that 80 organized groups provided to the Democratic Party. The analysis compares group requests with the content of Democratic and Republican National Committee platforms in 1996, 2000, and 2004. Results show that parties reward loyal groups and those that are ideologically proximate to the party but offer no confirmation of a resource effect.

A Social Network Analysis of Interest Group Contributions and Partisan Behavior in the 2006 House of Representatives

2011

Abstract This project examines how interest groups create partisan connections among US House members. Although the rise of ideologically motivated groups has been identified as a potential cause of legislative partisanship, there is very little research on how interest groups affect the nature of partisan coalitions. We consider how interest group donation strategies create connections between legislators and how the resulting networks affect the nature of lawmaking in the House.

The Coalitional Politics of U.S. Parties

Social Science Research Network, 2014

From Friends to Family: How Groups Decide to Ally with a Party First, since most (perhaps all), interest groups claim to be non-partisan, this paper argues that political scientists need to develop ways of empirically evaluating whether or not a group is partisan. Here, we attempt to articulate a definition of partisanship that allows us to tell where a group sits on the partisan-non-partisan spectrum. Ours is an electorally-focused definition: groups that are part of the party coalition are those that try to help only one party’s candidates win elections, across elections and over time. The less a group takes those steps, the less partisan we should consider the group. Second, we try to explain why there has traditionally been very limited research on the group-party relationship. We offer a simple qualitative model of the strategic choices that organized groups make about whether to become involved in electoral and partisan politics. This description suggests that only very few in...