Some scholars of American political development have used the phrase "partisan regimes" to refer to an important recurring pattern in American politics: a short, tumultuous period of partisan upheaval and political and policy change followed by extended stability. This article develops the concept of a partisan regime as an ideal type that can help scholars not only explain variations among historical cases, but identify the different elements that contribute to the rise of regimes and understand what these potent coalitions do once they secure power. The ideal type points to entrepreneurial leadership, political crises, and partisan narratives as the key contributors to the emergence of new governing orders. Furthermore, once a partisan regime achieves control, it only temporarily disrupts and remakes national policy, politics, and political debate. After achieving its core priorities, the regime primarily operates to preserve its gains. The concept of a partisan regime therefore offers only a limited explanation for many policy changes that occur during the long periods between regime upheavals. Polity (2012) 44, 51-80.
The political activism of American business as a class has surged and ebbed at various historical moments. Variations in both business and countervailing political mobilization should be approached as problems of collective interpretation and action. To explain the historical patterns of class-wide business activism, we need to look at the dynamics of partisan regimes in American politics. Partisan leaders, not businesses or other policy-seekers themselves, have the strongest incentives to absorb the transaction costs associated with either broad-scale business or countervailing collective action. When partisan entrepreneurs see an opportunity to alter the distribution of power at the national level, they engage in a discursive exercise to remold business or oppositional interests and undertake the mobilization of these interests.
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