Party Platforms: The Measurement of a Dualism in a Moving Consensus

The theory of a dualism in a moving consensus, as a
covariance in the party's outlook on major governmental
issues, is explained in the introduction of the paper.
It is illustrated by the most noteworthy example, the
convergence in attitudes of both parties on the importance
of governmental aid in economic And social areas after the
Great Depression. The importance of developing parallel
examples of interparty dualism on other issues is presented
as the goal of the paper.
The utility of the party platforms as the most
suitable continuous documents available for the measurement
of issue covariance is supported by a brief description of
their historical background and the political processes
involved in their completion . It is proposed that with the
party leadership determining the process of their adoption,
they are the best indicators of party attitude on major
issues.
Three platform hypotheses are presented to test the
dualism theory. The first hypothesis tests the covariance
of subject matter which each party develops in the major
issue areas of the platforms, to prove that they are in
agreement on the importance of the same problems. The
test of the second hypothesis requires the proof of a similar covariance of attitude toward these issues. The
third hypothesis is a test to eliminate the factor of being
in or out of power as the prime determinant of a party's
attitude toward major issues, rather than the dualism in a
moving consensus which slowly changes a party's outlook.
The background and methodology of content analysis is
developed to show its application to the first hypothesis.
The coding of the units of content on six major issue areas
and their subsequent statistical correlation validated
this hypothesis on the covariance of subject matter in the
platform8. The technique of the Q-sort is explained as a
measurement of party attitudes on the issues of Big Government
and Interventionism. Correlation of Q-sort data from both
parties on these issues did not support the second hypothesis.
The data failed to show a dualism in party attitude similar
to that found in subject matter. When the third hypothesis
was tested by Q-sorting it was rejected because it indicated
that a covariation of attitude toward the two issues is
correlated with the parties' change in control of the
presidency. It is therefore concluded that the theory of
a dualism in a moving consensus does not extend itself to
cover the issues tested . Instead it was indicated that
the condition of being in or out of power is the main fa ctor
in the formation of party attitude on the issues.