PARTY ORGANIZATIONAL STRENGTH AND PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR PARTIES

Theory: Theories of party organizational resurgence suggest that the s trength of party organizations counteracts weakness and decline in oth er portions of the party system. Hypotheses: Higher levels of total pa rty organizational strength in an area lead to more supportive attitud es toward political parties as institutions. Consistent with Progressi ve fears of concentrated power, an imbalance in the organizational str ength of the two parties in an area fosters more critical attitudes to ward parties. Methods: NES survey data and county party organizational strength data from the Party Transformation Study are used in ordinar y least squares and legit analysis to test three models of the relatio nship between party strength and public support toward parties. Result s: Strong party organizations contribute to public support for parties , particularly when strength is not exercised by one party alone. Tota l party strength is significantly related to public support only in a limited pooled analysis, but the organizational strength gap between t he two parties is significantly related to public support as expected and is robust across several alternative measures of perceived party p erformance.