The Role of Voters and Issues in Party Formation: Ohio, 1824

Abstract

THE formation of national political parties In the Jacksonian era is most fashionably described from the point of view of the politicians who formally directed the process. The story usually tells how politicians, in their quest for office and power, developed organizational machinery capable of winning elections in their various states, while at the national level they formed alliances with powerful political leaders in other states whose cooperation could enable them to win control of the presidency. Political issues are assumed to have been largely irrelevant to this process, partly because the political strife of the 1820s is considered to have been a contest of ambitious personalities rather than of issues and partly because it is now almost axiomatic that American political parties are catchall electoral machines designed essentially for nominating and electing candidates to office. Similarly, the attitudes and interests of the electorate are thought to have had little influence on party formation, since the politicians had apparently mastered the techniques of winning votes and could therefore lead their constituents. These assumptions have, if anything, been strengthened by recent studies of Jacksonian voting behavior, for these usually emphasize that the electorate divided along ethnic and cultural lines and was largely uninfluenced by the political debates and power struggles of the politicians. Leading historians of party formation accordingly have felt justified in ignoring political issues and the responses of the electorate and in slighting the importance of ideology and constituencies, even though they have run the risk of divorcing the growth of a political party from its immediate historical environment.' Donald). Ratcliffe is lecturer in history in the University of Durham, England.