Collaborative Research on Environment, Performance, and Leadership on Party Change

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This collaborative research (with Harmel 9112491) investigates the dynamics of political party change. It examines the mechanisms that produce changes in goals, issue positions, activities, and organization of parties. Time-series data will be collected on 19 political parties in four countries for the period 1950-1990. These data will be used both to assess the nature and extent of party change and to explain those changes in terms of environmental changes, the parties' performance in elections and in government, and leadership decisions. Although focused on individual parties, this research also will be important for understanding change in party systems. An understanding of individual parties is necessary to understand changes in larger systems. Moreover, both types of change are central theoretically to understanding the dynamic of government. When completed this data intensive research will increase our understanding of the dynamics of political party change. Moreover, the data collected will be of lasting value to other scholars interested in political parties.