THE INTRA-PARTY USES AND INFLUENCES OF PERSONAL RESOURCES DISTRIBUTED BY SUBURBAN PARTY ELITES.
Item
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Title
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THE INTRA-PARTY USES AND INFLUENCES OF PERSONAL RESOURCES DISTRIBUTED BY SUBURBAN PARTY ELITES.
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Identifier
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AAI8103939
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identifier
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8103939
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Creator
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KOUBEK, RICHARD FRANCIS.
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Date
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1980
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Political Science, General
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Abstract
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This study probes the intra-party uses and influences of personal resources (nominations, campaign assistance and patronage) distributed by suburban party elites (town party executive board members) on the incentives and behavior of lower strata activists (committee people). The study consists of personal interviews averaging two hours which were administered to 103 largely middle-class activists in the Democratic and Republican Parties, Huntington and Babylon Townships, Long Island, New York.;Since the early 1960's, the literature on local party activism has been dominated by Clark and Wilson's incentive theory of organizations which postulates that activists will assume material, solidary (social) or purposive (public-regarding) incentive goals which shape their political style (behavior) and their party organizations. A corollary in the literature has been the position that middle-class activists are predisposed to purposive incentives and consequently their local parties will assume the amateur rather than professional (machine) political style, i.e., an issue-programmatic orientation and a belief in intra-party democracy rather than electoral victory, organizational maintenance goals and the satisfaction of activists' personal incentive goals--particularly patronage.;The data reveal a subtle blending of political attitudes and styles from both the amateur and professional models. For example, the largest incentive sub-group, the "professional idealists", who cited purposive incentive goals to explain their current activism, were more cynical and disappointed with their party's professional norms than were activists who cited personal (material or solidary) incentive goals. The satisfactions they obtained from party work were more oriented toward the solidary-social benefits (the fun, excitement and social contacts) rather than the solidary-status benefits (ego recognition and power). The "professional idealists" were also less disposed to receive patronage or an executive board position.;In addition to challenging the amateur-professional dichotomy, the data fail to support the central hypothesis of this study which postulates that the incentives and political style of most lower strata activists were shaped by elite distribution of personal resources, particularly patronage. While activists overwhelmingly perceived others to be constrained by the desire for or fear of patronage rewards and sanctions, they largely perceived themselves to be free of such elite constraints, particularly when casting sensitive intra-party votes on such matters as nominees and leadership selection.;The data do suggest that a minority of activists, particularly those who cited personal incentive goals, may have been predisposed to personal rewards and sanctions. However, the data do not support the incentive theory assumption that activists' incentive goals are independent variables which shape their political behavior. In addition, contrary to a widely held assumption in the literature, patronage continues to be an important party perquisite--especially part-time and summer patronage--for most of these middle-class activists. However, elite distribution of personal resources did not determine either the incentives or political style of most activists. The fact that the majority of Huntington-Babylon activists misperceived these resources as a mainstay of their local parties was due to a belief that such resources are an inherent, underlying premise of local politics, than to their actual use as elite tools.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Political Science
