Focusing on the role of the DNC and RNC as party-branders, the analysis reveals how these committees shape party images to influence voter perception and election outcomes. Heersink explores the controversial decisions they face, including navigating intra-party conflicts over policy and voter demographics. Through comprehensive historical analysis, the book illustrates the committees' involvement in significant American policy debates throughout the 20th century, highlighting their impact on the political landscape.
A new assessment on the role, influence, and limitations of the Democratic and Republican National Committees in American political development. Scholars have long debated the role and importance of the Democratic and Republican National Committees in American politics. In National Party Organizations and Party Brands in American Politics, Boris Heersink identifies a core DNC and RNC role that has thus far been missed: creating national party brands. Drawing on extensive historical case studies and quantitative analysis, Heersink argues that the DNC and RNC have consistently prioritized their role of using publicity to inform voters about their parties' policies and priorities from the beginning of the twentieth century onwards. Both committees invested heavily in political communication tools with the goal of shaping voters' perceptions of their parties. As Heersink shows, the DNC and RNC often have considerable freedom in determining what type of brands to promote, placing them in the center of major intra-party debates in the twentieth century--including Prohibition, civil rights, foreign affairs, and economic policy. Analytically rigorous and marshaling a vast body of research on US elections between 1912 and 2016, this book highlights how important national party organizations are in setting the agenda in American politics.
Traces the transformation of the Republican Party in the South after
Reconstruction from a biracial organization to a mostly all-white one. This
shift, combined with laws passed to disenfranchise blacks during the Jim Crow
era, helps explain how the GOP emerged as a competitive and ultimately
dominant electoral party in the late-twentieth century South.
