Inter-Party Competition for Congressional Seats: the 1960s and 1970s

• Author: Harvey L. Schantz
• Published date: 01 June 1987
• Date: 01 June 1987
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591298704000214
• Subject Matter: Articles

INTER-PARTY

COMPETITION

FOR

CONGRESSIONAL

SEATS:

THE

1960s

AND

1970s

HARVEY

L.

SCHANTZ

State

University

of

New

York,

Plattsburgh

NTER-PARTY

competition

for

congressional

seats

is

a

long-standing

~

concern

of

scholars.

Major

studies

in

this

area

include

examinations

of

the

constituency

basis

of

party

representation

(Holcombe

1924);

the

sectional

delegations

of

the

Democrats

and

Republicans

(Ewing

1947);

and

the

relationship

between

district

outcomes

in

House

and

presidential

elec-

tions

(Cummings

1966).

Interest

in

two-party

competition

and

turnover

predates,

and

spawned,

the

more

recent

scholarly

emphasis

on

incumbency

(Mayhew

1974).

A

frequently

cited

contribution

to

this

field

of

study

by

Charles

O.

Jones

appeared

in

this

Quarterly

over

twenty

years

ago.

In

his

article,

Jones

(1964)

charted

the

frequency

of

party

turnover

in

United

States

House

elections

and

districts

for

four

decades:

1914-26, 1932-40, 1942-50,

and

1952-60.1

His

two

central

findings,

still

staples

of

congressional

election

analysis,

were

that

partisan

turnover

occurred

in

approximately

10

percent

of

some

1740

(4

x

435)

district

reelections

during

each

decade,

and

that

about

three

of

every

four

congressional

districts

remained

in

the

fold

of

one

political

party

throughout

each

apportionment

cycle.

Jones

also

found

that

since

the

1930s

the

Democratic

party

had

won

a

majority

of

the

&dquo;no

change&dquo;

districts.

The

precise

figures,

along

with

data

for

the

1890s,

1960s,

and

1970s

are

given

in

Table

1.

The

purposes

of

this

article

are

to

measure

inter-party

competition

for

the

1962-70,

and

1972-80,

periods,

and

to

place

these

findings

into

per-

spective.

To

facilitate

comparisons

with

earlier

decades,

especially

1952-60,

we

have

adopted

Jones’

research

design.

METHODS

OF

ANALYSIS

This

study

focuses

on

three

measures

of

inter-party

competition

in

U.S.

House

elections

for

three

decades,

1952-60,

1962-70,

and

1972-80.

The

first

measure

is &dquo;fluidity&dquo;

or

party

turnover.

&dquo;Fluidity&dquo;

is

calculated

by

dividing

the

number

of

party

turnovers

in

district

reelections

by

the

num-

ber

of

reelections

in

that

decade,

which

is

usually

four

times

the

number

Received:

December

4,

1985

Revision

Received:

May

28,

1986

Accepted

for

Publication:

May

30,

1986

NOTE:

For

their

important

suggestions,

I

am

thankful

to

Milton

C.

Cummings,

Jr.,

David

R.

Mayhew,

and

the

referees

and

Editor

of

this

Quarterly.

1

The

data

for

1914-26

were

originally

presented

in

Hasbrouck

(1927:

171-85).

We

use

the

term

"decade"

to

refer

to

an

apportionment

cycle.

There

was

no

apportionment

after

the

1920

census

(Congressional

Quarterly

1974:

230,

232),

and

Hasbrouck

did

not

in-

clude "the

election

of

1912"

for

it

was

"not

typical

of

the

two-party

system ... "(p. 171).