| Abstract: | Scholars have devoted a good deal of attention to studying changesin how the public evaluates the Democratic and Republican parties.However, there have been few attempts to examine the underlyingcomponents of the changes in these over all evaluations of theparties in detail. By recoding the Center for Political Studies'open-ended likes/dislikes questions for parties, this papermaps change in the underlying partisan evaluations of the electoratesince 1952. The results suggest that the Democrats have remainedthe favored party, despite some gains by the GOP in recent years.Of the eight issues studied, the Republicans have made significantinroads only on the economic front. The findings also highlightthe obstacles that face the Republican's effort to gain majoritystatus, suggesting why it has remained the minority party forover 50 years, and why it is likely to remain in that positionin the near future. |
