Political Parties and Electoral Mobilization: Political Structure, Social Structure, and the Party Canvass

Abstract

As agents of electoral mobilization, political parties occupy an important role in the social flow of political communication. We address several questions regarding party mobilization efforts. Whom do the parties seek to mobilize? What are the individual and aggregate characteristics and criteria that shape party mobilization efforts? What are the intended and unintended consequences of partisan mobilization, both for individual voters and for the electorate more generally? In answering these questions we make several arguments. First, party efforts at electoral mobilization inevitably depend upon a process of social diffusion and informal persuasion, so that the party canvass serves as a catalyst aimed at stimulating a cascading mobilization process. Second, party mobilization is best seen as being environmentally contingent upon institutional arrangements, locally defined strategic constraints, and partisan divisions within particular electorates. Finally, the efforts of party organizations generate a layer of political structure within the electorate that sometimes competes with social structure and often exists independently from it.

Two Genes Predict Voter Turnout

“…These models include: demographic factors like age (Strate et al 1989), gender , race (Verba, Schlozman, and Brady 1993), marital status (Stoker and Jennings 1995), education (Leighley and Nagler 1992b), income (Leighley and Nagler 1992a), occupational prestige Prewitt 1969a, 1969b), and home ownership (Highton and Wolfinger 2001); attitudinal and behavioral factors like interest in the campaign , access to political information (DiMaggio, Hargittai, and Neuman 2001), general political knowledge (Galston 2001), strength of partisanship (Huckfeldt and Sprague 1992), feelings of civic duty (Blais and Young 1999), internal and external efficacy (Finkel 1985), political trust (Hetherington 1999), church attendance (Cassel 1999), personal skill acquisition , humanitarianism (Jankowski 2007), altruism (Fowler 2006a), and patience (Fowler and Kam 2006); social factors like interpersonal communication (McLeod, Scheufele, and Moy 1999), social identification (Fowler and Kam 2007), group consciousness (Miller, Gurin, and Gurin 1981), socialization (Cho 1999), the status of neighbors (Huckfeldt 1979), political disagreement (Mutz 2002), and social capital (Lake and Huckfeldt 1998); and institutional factors (Jackman and Miller 1995) like closeness of the election (Shachar and Nalebuff 1999), contact from political organizations (Wielhouwer and Lockerbie 1994), campaigns (Ansolabehere and Gerber 1994), civic education (Somit et al 1958), polling locations (Gimpel and Schuknecht 2003), and barriers to registration (Rosenstone and Wolfinger 1978). However...…”

Party Mobilization and Political Participation in New and Old Democracies

“…Declining party mobilization efforts in general have been blamed for the decline in turnout in the United States (Rosenstone and Hansen, 1993) and in New Zealand (Vowles, 2002). Other studies suggest that party mobilization can extend beyond voting to other campaign activities (Huckfeldt and Sprague, 1992) and civic volunteerism (Pattie et al, 2003).…”

How do Civic Associations Foster Political Participation? The Role of Scope and Intensity of Organizational Involvement

“…The mobilization approach asserts that individuals are embedded in their social networks where contextual cues and political opportunities may be supplied and participation may be mobilized. Being asked to participate by one's political party, groups of affiliation, family, friends, or others in the social networks, makes one more likely to engage in political activities (e. g., Booth and Richard 1998;Brady, Schlozman, and Verba 1999;Bratton 1999;Huckfeldt and Sprague 1992;Kenny 1992;Knoke 1990). In the social movement literature, for example, many studies have highlighted the positive association between recruitment and the likelihood of one's engagement in protests, boycotts, or the like (Diani and McAdam 2003;Fernandez and McAdam 1988;McAdam and Paulsen 1993;Walker 2008).…”