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Local Party Activists and Electoral Linkage

Middlesex County, NJ

San Francisco State University

Gerald Pomper

Rutgers University

Maureen Moakley

Rutgers University

Using the framework of linkage theory, we examine local parties, by means of mail questionnaires to party activists in one county of New Jersey. Three aspects are investigated : level of activism, satisfaction of activists, and decision-making structures. Activists concentrate on campaigns, derive most satisfaction from electoral work, and leave decision making to party leaders. Relationships among higher activism, greater satisfaction, and more democratic structures are positive, but only to a moderate degree. We conclude, with Schlesinger, that U.S. parties primarily are agencies of electoral, not participatory or clientelistic, linkage, and consider the possible implications of this fact for the long-range liability of local parties and the American political system.

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