MINORITY STATUS TO SERIOUS PARTISAN ALTERNATIVE? THE CASE OF THE LOUISIANA REPUBLICAN PARTY, 1948-1983

This dissertation examines one single Southern Republican party as a case study of the internal dynamics involved in a party evolution from minority status to a serious partisan alternative. The subject of the dissertation is the Louisiana Republican party, which has improved from being an empty threat to the Democratic party to a status at times approximating competitiveness. The period under study is that from 1948 until 1983. It is mainly an analysis of the processes involved in a minor party's attempt to become electorally competitive.;The core of the Republican party is the same in Louisiana as it is in the rest of the nation. Examination of the Republican party in the electorate shows that Republicans in Louisiana, as in the nation, are unified on ideology and issues of economic management.;The period has witnessed a radical change in the party's organizational structure. The Republican Party has gone from being a handful of New Orleans activists who came together every four years to a highly visible, sophisticated organization. Under a dominant leadership, the organization has developed into a hierarchial structure which persists from election to election and operates between elections. The party possesses all of the necessary attributes of an organization and has established a communications network across the state that is controlled by a full-time salaried executive staff. Analysis of the Republican Party in Louisiana shows that organizational strength is not neccessarily determined by the level of partisan identification. Indeed, the Republicans in Louisiana have an organization far stronger then their registration figures suggest. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of author.) UMI;The growth of the Republican party in Louisiana is complex, diverse and uneven, but there can be no doubt that the nature of party competition had changed in Louisiana. The Republicans have been rewarded in the last ten years with success at all electoral levels, while since 1952 there has been a clear and steady progression to two-party competition at the presidential level. Overall it is still too early to talk of there being genuine two-party politics. There is still a wide gulf between Republican performance at the presidential level and all other levels of voting within the state. At the moment the party is still waiting to reap the rewards promised to them by their success at the national level.