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The Transformation of Political Institutions: Investments in Institutional Resources and Gradual Change in the National Party Committees

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2012

Daniel J. Galvin*
Affiliation:
Northwestern University

Abstract

Institutional theorists have made major progress in recent years examining gradual processes of endogenous institutional change. Building on this line of theorizing, this article highlights an often overlooked source of incremental change in political institutions: investments in institutional resources. Unlike path-dependent processes, which are relatively open at the front end and relatively closed at the back end, resource investments made in one period serve to widen an institution's path and enhance its capacity to undertake a broader range of activities in subsequent periods. Drawn out over time, these investments can gradually transform institutional operations and purposes. To illustrate these dynamics, this article reconsiders the transformation of the national party committees into “parties in service” to their candidates. The most influential theoretical explanation for this change is supplied by actor-centered functionalist accounts that either ignore the parties' institutional forms or treat them as mere reflections of actors' preferences. As an alternative, I suggest that investments in two types of institutional resources—human resources and information assets—were integral to the process through which each party changed. Piecemeal investments in these resources gradually enabled each national party committee to provide a wider range of campaign services to its candidates, thereby producing ostensibly new “functions” over time. Though the process of institutional change unfolded at very different times in each party, the same dynamics were on display in both cases.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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110. “Can the DNC Adjust to Being a Minority?” National Journal, September 5, 1981; “Democratic Party Takes Some Strides Down the Long Comeback Trail,” National Journal, October 8, 1983.

111. “Democratic Party Takes Some Strides Down the Long Comeback Trail;” “A Tale of Two Parties,” National Journal, January 21, 1984.

112. Klinkner, The Losing Parties, 181.

113. Ibid., 182.

114. See, for example, Cook, Rhodes, “Kirk Leaves, Floodgates Open,” CQ Weekly Report, December 10, 1988.Google Scholar

115. Adam Clymer, “Democrats: New Views,” New York Times, September 24, 1981; “Can the DNC Adjust to Being a Minority?”

116. “Democratic Party Takes Some Strides Down the Long Comeback Trail.”

117. Klinkner, The Losing Parties, 182.

118. Galvin, Presidential Party Building; Galvin, Daniel J., “Changing Course: Reversing the Organizational Trajectory of the Democratic Party from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama,” The Forum 6 (2008).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

119. Electoral incentives clearly played a role in changing the Democrats' mentality. For example, after many years of running disparate, largely uncoordinated campaigns, the heterogeneous Democratic coalition finally began to come together to develop cooperative campaign plans. According to DNC Chairman Joe Andrew, this was a direct result of the changed electoral context: “We didn't have all these guys around a table—for example organized labor—to do something for years. Literally, it wasn't because of me, I did nothing. I just invited them all to come to talk. They did it because of the fact that they were so concerned that we weren't going to win! There was no secret sauce here . . . People were willing to come together and talk and coordinate the way they had not been, because—what choice did they have?” Personal Interview with Joe Andrew, June 26, 2007, Washington, DC.

120. “America 2000,” Washington, DC: Democratic National Committee, 1999.

121. Ibid.

122. McAuliffe, Terry and Kettmann, Steve, What a Party!: My Life among Democrats (New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2007).Google Scholar

123. Reich, Brian, “Please Standby . . . The DNC Is Still Experiencing Technical Difficulties,” Personal Democracy Forum, April 18, 2005.Google Scholar

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126. Matt Bai, “The inside Agitator,” New York Times Magazine, October 1, 2006; Jamieson, Electing the President 2008: The Insiders' View.

127. As incoming DNC Chairman Tim Kaine promised to do. See Tim Kaine, “Tim Kaine Answers Questions About Future of Party,” 2009, http://www.democrats.org/page/invite/questionsvideo.

128. Ari Melber, “Year One of Organizing for America: The Permanent Field Campaign in a Digital Age,” A techPresident Special Report, January, 2010, http://www.techpresident.com/files/report_Year_One_of_Organizing_for_America_Melber.pdf; Berman, Herding Donkeys.

129. Milkis, Sidney M. and Rhodes, Jesse H., “Barack Obama, the Democratic Party, and the Future of the ‘New American Party System',” The Forum 7 (2009)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sidney M. Milkis and Jesse H. Rhodes, “Barack Obama, the Democratic Party, and the Evolution of the American Party System,” paper presented at Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, 2010, in Washington, DC.

130. Nancy Scola, “The New ‘Raise Your Vote': OFA's Design to Turn out Mid-Term Voters,” TechPresident.com, June 17, 2010; Nancy Scola, “Dems Release Voter Reg Widget,” TechPresident.com, July 14, 2010.