ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the work of Lewis Bowman and his colleagues by examining similar data gathered through a survey of party precinct officers in South Carolina. Even though the total number of party changers is fairly small, they are sufficiently numerous, especially within the local Republican organizations, to constitute an important potential source of change among local party activists in South Carolina. The Republican party was virtually nonexistent as Democrats controlled the state's electoral system at all levels. The most revealing information on socioeconomic backgrounds relates to the increased attraction of the Republican party in South Carolina to older Democrats who are more likely than the stable Republicans to be from South Carolina. The most interesting and indisputable evidence of party sorting among South Carolina's precinct officials is the data on ideology and issues. The division of the southern party system into a conservative Republican party and a moderate/liberal Democratic party is demonstrated clearly and consistently in these data.