Political parties--Florida

This thesis examines the impact of electoral forces on party unity scores among Florida's Democratic congressional delegation from 1972 to 1992. The impacts of in-migration of non-southern whites, immigration of Hispanics, realignment into the Republican Party, and the enfranchisement of Black voters were analyzed. The increased party unity scores among Florida's Democratic Representatives was determined to be primarily the result of in-migration and realignment which resulted in a smaller, but more homogeneous Democratic delegation, a trend likely to continue.

The purpose of this project was to determine the legal powers
and duties of state political party chairmen, as enumerated in party
by-laws and state election laws. The thesis is divided into six chapters, the most extensive
of which contains empirical tests of twenty-six hypotheses pertaining
to eleven groups of items organized from 235 judge-evaluated items.
The groups are: Qualifications, method of election and term of office; Appointive powers; Removal powers; Vacancy-filling powers; Voting; and
Functions of the chairman vis-a-vis the state committee, executive
committee, subcommittees, local committees, state conventions, local
conventions and elections. There are also chapters which analyze the 235 evaluated items,
the effectiveness of the by-laws and election laws, and the relationship
be tween the party scores and selected political and demographic
variables. The final chapter recapitulates the major findings and
conclusions. Ten appendices contain data utilized in the study.