Grassroots activism and party politics: The Christian right in state republican parties

One of the most important phenomena in contemporary American politics has been the development of the political Christian Right. Many scholars have made significant contributions to our understanding of both the origin and development of the national movement and the unique situations in individual states and their Republican parties. However, few have sought a theoretical explanation for the variation we see across states. My dissertation develops and tests, using quantitative and qualitative data, a theory of the varying influence of the Christian Right in state level Republican parties that focuses on the most important ingredients for Christian Right influence. Building on an elite "political observer" survey conducted after the 2000 election, I create a useful measure of the Christian Right's influence in all fifty states and find that the characteristics of the Christian Right in the state, primarily the quality of movement leadership, have the most impact on the potency of that influence. Then, utilizing a rigorous case study methodology, I combine publicly available state-level data with face-to-face in-depth interviews of party and movement elites from several states to gain a comprehensive and contextual understanding on the relationship between the Christian Right and the Republican party in that state. Complementing scholars' understanding of the interplay between social movements and political parties, two major conclusions are presented. First, the structures of the Republican party and state politics have a significant impact on the Christian Right's ability to gain access to the party organization. Second, the character of the Christian Right movement in a state, based upon extensive Evangelical and conservative social networks and grassroots political activity, greatly determines the effectiveness with which the movement can promote its policy goals.