2014/01/01 by Adam Chamberlain · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #American Constitutional Law and Politics #Historical Economic and Social Studies #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Voting #Straight-ticket voting #Counterfactual thinking #Political science #Split-ticket voting #Political economy #Politics #Argument (complex analysis) #Instant-runoff voting #Disapproval voting #Distribution (mathematics) #Voting behavior #Perspective (graphical) #Public administration #Law #Economics #Social psychology
paper · doi:10.1017/ssh.2015.27
openalex publication_date 2014/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
The development of the Republican Party is a significant event in American political history. While scholars describe its formation as a realignment caused by the slavery issue, this article reinterprets this perspective. Focusing on gubernatorial elections in New England from 1840 to the mid-1850s, I present evidence that the rise of the Republican Party in the region was due to a lack of strategic voting coupled with third-party, antislavery voting that did not consistently affect the Whigs across states. A counterfactual argument suggests that Whig elites would have sought to change the nature of party politics and, had the distribution of third-party voting affected the Whigs similarly across states, then the Republicans may not have formed. Thus, the distribution of antislavery, third-party voting was more important than the presence of antislavery sentiment. This finding is important for understanding American party development and how strategic voting fits into the study of US elections.