ABSTRACT
The concept of political mobilization is critical in providing a link between places, on the one hand, and the state and organizations such as political parties that provide 'bonding' for the state, on the other hand. Historically, American political parties have been able to rely on widespread acceptance of the state as an intruder into people's lives to minimize their importance as redistributive agents. In this chapter the mobilization crisis theme is pursued by examining the extent to which the major American political parties are failing to perform their 'integrative function': bringing together places into one national framework. Voting is a major indicator and contributor to the integration and maintenance of the state and its constitutional arrangements. It is a major concomitant and cause of the decline in electoral participation. There are various ways of capturing the extent of 'partisan decay'. One is the extent of split-ticket voting, or voting for different offices for candidates who belong to different parties.
