NOMINATION POLITICS AND IDEOLOGICAL POLARIZATION - ASSESSING THE ATTITUDINAL EFFECTS OF CAMPAIGN INVOLVEMENT

Many critics of the open presidential nomination system have faulted t he democratic reforms of the 1960s and 1970s for increasing the tenden cy toward ideological polarization within each partisan bloc. Several recent studies, however, downplay the ideological component of nominat ion campaign mobilization. In contrast to these later revisionists. I find much evidence to support the original charge of ideological polar ization during nomination politics. I do so by respecifying the connec tion between political attitudes and political involvement; activists who worked for one of the more ideologically extreme candidates in 198 8 became more committed ideologues themselves as a consequence of thei r participation. However, rather than damaging the partisan blocs, inv olvement in an ideologically charged campaign reinforced the activist' s commitment to his or her party.