Influences of Partisanship and Incumbency On a Nonpartisan Election System
| Date | 01 March 1964 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591296401700111 |
| Author | A. Clarke Hagensick |
| Published date | 01 March 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
117
INFLUENCES
OF
PARTISANSHIP
AND
INCUMBENCY
ON
A
NONPARTISAN
ELECTION
SYSTEM
A.
CLARKE
HAGENSICK
University
of
Wisconsin,
Milwaukee
RITICS
OF
POLITICS
in
the
United
States
argue
that
nonpartisanship
C
detracts
from
the
goals
of
a
responsible
two-party
system,
that
it
curtails
the
development
of
viable
grass-roots
support
for
the
respective
parties,
and
that
it
hampers
the
recruitment
of
candidates
for
state
and
national
partisan
elections.’
While
the
political
insights
gained
from
such
studies
are
frequently
perceptive
and
important,
they
often
leave
unanswered
the
reverse
question
of
the
impact
of
parti-
sanship
upon
a
nonpartisan
system
of
elections.2
This
study
probes
the
incidence
of
that
impact
within
local
legislative
bodies
in
the
Milwaukee
area.
It
places
particu-
lar
emphasis
on
the
partisan
affiliations
of
nonpartisan
officeholders,
the
activity
of
the
formal
party
apparatus
during
nonpartisan
contests,
the
relationship
between
partisan
and
nonpartisan
officeholders,
and
the
effects
of
incumbency
in
nonpartisan
elections.
I
A
traditional
justification
for
nonpartisan
local
elections
has
been
the
conten-
tion
that
the
divorce
of
partisanship
from
the
process
of
choosing
officeholders
leads
to
the
triumph
of
independent
candidates
who
are
interested
only
in
governing
the
community
in
the
most
effective
ways.
The
argument
followed
from
assumptions
that
political
parties
were
irrelevant
in
municipal
affairs -
that
&dquo;there
is
no
Repub-
lican
versus
Democratic
way
to
pave
a
street.&dquo;
Political
parties
tended
to
confuse
or
entrap
the
voter
and
make
less
likely
the
selection
of
competent
local
officials.3
At
times
when
political
parties
had
particularly
unsavory
reputations,
this
argument
had
special
appeal,
and
it
contributed
to
the
adoption
of
nonpartisanship
as
one
anti-
dote
against
partisan
activity.
On
the
basis
of
biographical
information
about
candidates
for
nonpartisan
local
legislative
offices
in
the
city
of
Milwaukee
and Milwaukee
County,
the
candidate
unaffiliated
with
a
political
party
does
not
predominate.
As
indicated
in
Table
I,
nearly
70
per
cent
of
the
candidates
in
these
contests
in
1956
and
1960
had
formal
NOTE:
The
Research
Committee
of
the
Graduate
School,
University
of
Wisconsin,
provided
summer
salary
support
that
made
this
study
possible.
1
See,
for
example,
V.
O.
Key,
Jr.,
Politics,
Parties,
and
Pressure
Groups
(3rd
ed. ;
New
York :
Crowell,
1956),
pp.
429-30;
Charles
R.
Adrian,
"Some
General
Characteristics
of
Non-
partisan
Elections,"
American
Political
Science
Review,
46
( September
1952),
766-76;
Marvin
A.
Harder,
Nonpartisan
Elections:
A
Political
Illusion?
Eagleton
Institute
Cases
in
Practical
Politics
(New
York:
McGraw-Hill,
1960),
pp.
25-26.
2
In
his
study
of
nonpartisanship
in
California,
Eugene
C.
Lee
considers
the
influence
of
political
parties
on
local,
nonpartisan
elections,
but
his
basic
effort
is
to
analyze
nonpartisanship
in
terms
of
democratic
norms
usually
associated
with
a
responsible
party
system;
genuineness
of
political
competition
and
potential
access
to
power
of
all
groups
in
the
community.
See
Politics
of
Nonpartisanship:
A
Study
of
California
City
Elections
(Berkeley:
University
of
California
Press,
1960),
pp.
4,
98.
3
See
Arthur
W.
Bromage,
A
Councilman
Speaks
(Ann
Arbor:
Wahr,
1951),
pp.
41-44,
for
a
forthright
presentation
of
this
argument
based
in
part
on
service
in
the
Ann
Arbor
local
governing
body.
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