States and the Making of the “Service” Party: The Case of the Postwar Ohio Republican Party

During the second half of the twentieth century, at a time when most observers thought they were in decline, parties were in fact transformed in the US. At the center of this change, scholars argue, was the development, at the national level, of a more centralized and professionally oriented “servic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of American studies 2011-08, Vol.45 (3), p.519-537
Main Author: CONLEY, BRIAN M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
American history
Centralization
Conservatism
Economic Development
Fundraising
Governors
Institutionalization
Ohio
Organizational Structure
Party organization
Party politics
Political campaigns
Political candidates
Political elections
Political history
Political Parties
Political science
Post-war history
Regional politics
Republican parties
Services
State elections
State Role
Twentieth Century
United States of America
Voter registration
Voting
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Summary:During the second half of the twentieth century, at a time when most observers thought they were in decline, parties were in fact transformed in the US. At the center of this change, scholars argue, was the development, at the national level, of a more centralized and professionally oriented “service” model of party organization within the Republican Party. What the emphasis on the national level obscures, however, is the important role that state parties played in the development of a service style of party organization prior to the 1960s. Nowhere was this more evident than in Ohio, where the postwar Republican Party, led by Ray Bliss, had a significant impact on the development of this new, more centralized “service” approach to party organization. The Bliss model represented one of the most fully developed examples to date, at any level, of the service party, as demonstrated by its organizational continuity over time, and its influence on the subsequent institutionalization of a similar structure within the Republican Party nationally in the 1960s and 1970s.
ISSN:0021-8758
1469-5154
DOI:10.1017/S0021875810001714