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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Cooperative Party Factions In American Politics, Gregory Koger, Seth Masket, Hans Noel
Cooperative Party Factions In American Politics, Gregory Koger, Seth Masket, Hans Noel
Gregory Koger
What are the primary factions within the Democratic and Republican parties, and to what extent do rival factions cooperate? We address these questions using a unique data set of information sharing between party organizations, media outlets, 527s, and interest groups. Using social network methods, we identify two major information-sharing clusters, or expanded party networks; these networks correspond to a liberal/Democratic grouping and a conservative/Republican grouping. We further identify factions within each party network, but we find a high degree of cooperation between party factions. That is, our data suggest that beneath the intraparty disagreements we observe in primary elections and …
Partisan Webs: Information Exchange And Party Networks, Gregory Koger, Seth Masket, Hans Noel
Partisan Webs: Information Exchange And Party Networks, Gregory Koger, Seth Masket, Hans Noel
Gregory Koger
What is a party? We argue that the formal party apparatus is only one part of an extended network of interest groups, media, 527s, and candidates. We systematically measure a portion of this network by tracking transfers of names between political organizations. Our analysis reveals two distinct and polarized networks corresponding to a more liberal Democratic group and a more conservative Republican group. Formal party organizations, like the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee, tend to receive information within their respective networks, which suggests that other groups serve to funnel information toward the formal party.