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2.01 government discrimination
- 1, ac9
- The Republicans, like the
Democrats, benefit from state laws which award a place on
the ballot to parties which had received certain
percentages of the vote at previous elections. Both
parties are thus favored by the electoral system, which
forces new parties to petition for positions on the
official ballot, and petition processes are notoriously
complicated and frustrating.
- 2.02 governmental
leadership
- 4 out of 7 for 1950-56,
ac9
- 4 out of 6 for 1957-62,
ac9
- Eisenhower, a Republican, was
president from 1953 through 1960, having been elected for
two successive terms in 1952 and 1956.
- 2.03 cabinet
participation
- 6 out of 7 for 1950-56,
ac9
- 6 out of 6 for 1957-62,
ac9
- Robert Patterson, Secretary of War
from 1945 to 1947, was a Republican in the Democratic
administration of Harry Truman, but this was before our
time period. During our time period, however, Robert A.
Lovett (Republican) was Secretary of Defense under Truman
for two years, beginning in 1951. Naturally, the
Republicans dominated the cabinet during the eight years
of the Eisenhower administration. Two Republicans
(Douglas Dillon as Secretary of Treasury and Robert
McNamara as Secretary of Defense) were also in the
otherwise all Democratic cabinet of John Kennedy for the
last two years of our period.
- 2.04 national
participation
- 5, ac9
- If the United States is divided
into four geographic regions--east, central, south, and
west--the composition of Republican Party identifiers
deviates from the population distribution across regions
by an average of 5.8 percentage points in 1952 and 6.0
points in 1960. If the country is divided into eight
rather than four regions, however, the average deviation
drops to 3.5 for 1952 and 3.1 for 1960. Because the
Republican Party had a special difficulty in penetrating
the south during our time period, the cruder division was
used in scoring the party on this variable.
- 2.05 legislative
strength
- Strength is .47 for 1950-56, ac9
and .40 for 1957-62, ac9
- The Republican Party won control
of the House of Representatives only once during our time
period, which coincided with the first two years of the
Eisenhower administration. The remainder of the time, the
Republicans were always the minority party in the house,
as well as in the senate.
- 2.06 electoral
strength
- Strength is .48 for 1950-56, ac9
and .45 for 1957-62, ac9
- There were seven elections for the
House of Representatives during our time period. The
Republican percentage of the vote ranged from a low of 43
in 1958 to a high of 49 obtained on three different
occasions--1950, 1952, and 1956.
- 2.07 outside origin
- 8, ac7
- The Republican Party was born out
of a series of meetings of anti- slavery forces called to
protest the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 .
These meetings had a grass-roots character about them, as
some were held in local schools and halls outside the
major cities. Leaders and members of local Democrat,
Whig, and Free Soil parties joined together in fusion
groups, some in which immediately adopted the Republican
label while others took a little longer. In any event,
the Republican Party was a spontaneous reaction to events
and did not come about by inspired leadership of one or a
few outstanding individuals. (Jones1965--5. Sundquist,
1973--65-66. Binkley, 1962--206-208).
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