ABSTRACT
We should add that political parties in the USA are also diffuse: there are no party lists selected by leadership. Party officials do not control most candidacies, even at the national level; they often have trouble recruiting candidates at all at state and local levels; and selfstarter individual candidacies are common, if not the norm. In local and state elections the legal and financial barriers are low, and it is not difficult to gather the resources to run as a partisan. Comparative permeability marks the institution of American parties. This is crucial because, as we argue, parties are the chief institutional resources for political incorporation.
