The Impact of State Party Elite Ideology

This study looks at the impact of state party elite ideology in American state politics. Drawing on the spatial theory of Anthony Downs, we develop hypotheses first to explain the non-convergence of candidates. Party elites are ideologically distinct, influential and strongly policy motivated. They are a force pulling candidates away from the average voter in varying degrees across the states. Second, elites influence public policy. Although the single greatest influence on the general liberalism- conservatism of state policy is public opinion, the ideological tendencies of the party elites have an important added impact. Finally, we examine the long-term impact of party elite ideology on state partisanship. We find that ideological extremism loses party identifiers; across the states, the ideological tendencies of party elites, relative to public opinion, is an important influence on state partisanship. Party elites, particularly the policy motivated activists, are an important force shaping politics in the states.