During the early twentieth century, the Democratic party dominated the conservative political landscape of Texas. Through the 1920s, members of the Republican party focused on patronage and seemed content to maintain the position of minority party. A growing dissatisfaction with the liberal policies of the New Deal during the 1930s created opportunities for state Republicans to woo dissenting Democrats to their side. With a change of leadership within the state GOP after 1950, the Republicans waged serious campaigns for offices for the first time. Republican men exercised their political yearnings through leadership positions. Women, on the other hand, were shut out of the leadership ranks, and, as a consequence, they chose a traditional female strategy. They organized clubs in order to support the new leadership and rising candidates. Against formidable odds, Republican women acted as foot soldiers and worked diligently to attain their objectives. As early as 1920, Texas Republican women began to organize. In 1938 they joined the newly chartered National Federation of Republican Women. In 1955 Texas women organized the Texas Federation of Republican Women (TFRW). Working through the TFRW, the women became the catalysts that broke the Republican party from its state of inertia, and they significantly contributed to the breakdown of the one-party system in Texas. Willing to do the "shoe leather politicking" necessary for victory, women became invaluable to GOP candidates, who began their campaigns in the clubhouses of Republican women. In 1978, with the election of the first Republican governor in a century, Republicans finally brought competitive politics to Texas. By the 1990s, the GOP became the majority party in the state. Republican women were not only important to the growth of the party, they were the driving force that broke the state from the shackles of one-party rule by winning elections through grassroots efforts. This study fully recognizes the rich contribution women made to Texas politics throughout the twentieth century.

Ce travail propose une sociologie historique du Parti démocrate turc, qui est fondé en 1946, arrive au pouvoir en 1950, et y reste jusqu’à un coup d’Etat de l’armée, en 1960. La sociologie de ce parti permet d’éclairer la compréhension du passage d’un régime de parti unique à un système de compétition partisane en Turquie. Pour cela, nous avons choisi une séquence chronologique longue, qui va de la fondation du parti en 1946 à sa chute en 1960. En effet, observer la création, puis la structuration du Parti démocrate nous permet de voir le rôle qu’il joue dans l’acculturation à la civilisation électorale, la promotion de nouvelles élites, mais aussi les continuités avec le parti unique, et le verrouillage progressif du champ politique, pour retourner à une situation autoritaire vers la fin des années 1950. Une sociologie fine du parti nous permettra ainsi de comprendre comment il se constitue en parti dominant. Pour ce faire, nous étudions le parti à travers ses implantations locales dans quatre départements de Turquie, Adana, Diyarbakır, Erzurum et Izmir, en portant une attention aux aspects informels de son fonctionnement. A partir de sources variées, archives de la presse locale, mémoires d’hommes politiques locaux, rapports diplomatiques, et divers témoignages, nous montrons que le Parti démocrate s’est imposé comme parti dominant sur la scène politique, en s’appuyant sur divers groupes sociaux, dont les hommes d’affaires et les petits commerçants conservateurs (esnaf). Dans ce processus, la capacité du parti à recruter des hommes politiques locaux, qui pouvaient mobiliser une large clientèle, a joué un rôle essentiel. / The aim of this study is to make a social history of the Turkish Democrat Party from 1946 to 1950. There are many essays about the Turkish Democrat Party in political history. Mainly, these works are based on macro and state-centered sources: state archives, national press, and parliamentary debates. Very few studies attempt to assess the social dynamics that led to the Democrat Party coming to power and holding it for a 10-year period. My claim is that to understand the social dynamics that led to the Democrat Party’s rise, we must look at its grassroots organizations and local recruitment. Therefore, I examine four different areas of Turkey—Izmir, Erzurum, Diyarbakir, and Adana—in order to better understand the Democrat Party’s social base. I use sources like the local press and memoirs of local politicians, as well as diplomatic reports, sociological works, and oral interviews with eyewitnesses from the period. This work aims to paint a comprehensive picture of the Democrat Party’s social base by revealing the important role that rural elite, artisans, and small-town shop-keepers played in shaping the party's conservative character.