Critical election and realignment theory dominates political science literature on American voting behavior, focusing on massive partisan conversion through cataclysmic political change. Attention to another viable source of partisan change, secular or long-term transformation, has been scant, due at least partially to the difficulties attendant to detecting glacial, ongoing change. I seek to address this gap in the literature through a fifty-state analysis of gubernatorial voting behavior spanning forty-six years, 1942-1988. / I test models of vote choice in gubernatorial elections based on a synthesis of the factors which we expect to influence partisanship from critical election and realignment theory in addition to factors involving demographic shifts and migratory patterns. First, this is done in ten-year intervals, followed by analyses of models for identical time periods modified to best explain the dependent variable within the context of each particular time period. These analyses are then replicated for the pre- and post-Voting Rights Act of 1965 time periods, and again for non-southern states. / The approach of this investigation shows that the factors influencing gubernatorial vote choice are undergoing a gradual transformation. The earlier periods tested (especially the 1950s) displayed a great deal of stability, followed by indications of partisan upheaval in the 1960s and 1970s. A degree of stability seems to return to gubernatorial voting by the 1980s. The results of modifying the models to fit the context of the time period under analysis are robust enough to warrant further attention to this research tactic. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-11, Section: A, page: 4070. / Major Professor: Charles J. Barrilleaux. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_76540 |
| Contributors | Dawes, Roy Adrian., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 204 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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