POLITICAL-PARTIES AND CLASS MOBILIZATION IN CONTEMPORARY UNITED-STATES ELECTIONS

Theory. Research on historical and contemporary American party systems suggests how political party and party system attributes are relevant to class-specific mobilization. Hypotheses. The more Liberal and comp etitive the Democratic party in a state, the greater the mobilization of lower-class voters. Liberal and competitive Democratic parties will enhance turnout of the lower classes more than that of other classes. The latter relationships will be stronger in off year elections than in presidential elections. Methods: Pooled time-series and cross-secti onal analyses of turnout are conducted by social class, state, and yea r for 1978 through 1990. Results: The first two hypotheses about party attributes and class-specific mobilization are strongly supported, bu t only in presidential election years.