The Active Minority: Continuation of Collaborative Research on the Presidential Nomination Process

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This investigation will track participation in the nomination and general elections of 1992 in order to study the relationship between involvement in presidential nomination campaigns and participation in the general election. The researchers are concerned with participation in the fall presidential campaign, in campaigns for other offices, and in the party organizations. In addition, they will focus upon identifying and tracking patterns of change in the party system. They contend that presidential nominations are important avenues for recruiting activists into campaign and party activity. This is an underappreciated consequence of contemporary nomination campaigns, and it is one that this investigation is uniquely designed to address. As a renewal investigation, the researchers will continue the long- term tracking of presidential nomination participants they began with in the 1980 election. They recontact their panel of state convention delegates, which reaches back to the 1980 nomination campaign. The researchers also continue their 5-wave panel of caucus attenders begun in 1984, and recontact the bulk of their 1988 cross-section samples from the 1988 campaign. In addition, the researchers draw new cross-sections of caucus attenders from the 1992 nomination campaign. All samples involve both Democrats and Republicans, and all of their contacts in this phase of the study will be made immediately following the 1992 fall election. This study promises to substantially enhance our understanding of the role that nomination campaigns play in recruiting activists into campaign and political party activity.